The number of individuals charged with domestic assault by strangulation have more than doubled in the last year, and local law enforcement officials are unsure why.

From Nov. 1, 2008, to Nov. 1, 2009, 10 charges for domestic assault by strangulation were filed in Mower County, and in the same time period from 2009 to 2010, 23 charges were filed, according to dispatch officials.

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From Sept. 1 to Nov. 1 this year alone, six charges of this nature were filed.

“It is alarming to see (the number of strangulations reported) go up that much in one year,” Police Chief Brian Krueger said. “Our officers take it very seriously and have had training … so the appropriate charges are filed.”

Domestic assault by strangulation became a separate charge from the overarching domestic abuse charge in 2005, when the Minnesota State Legislature passed a statute declaring it its own felony category.