The St. Joseph Police Department released its Crime Analysis Report for 2018 which showed a decrease in total number of crimes reported.

There were 11,715 crimes reported in 2018 compared to 12,112 in 2017.

According to the report (see below), total crime represents all offenses including status offenses, lesser included offenses under Incident Based Reporting and police productivity crimes.

In February 2018, the St. Joseph Police Department switched over to Incident Based Reporting, which St. Joseph Police Chief Chris Connally said the whole country will be switched to by 2020. The switch was made from Uniform Crime Reporting, which has been the reporting system since the 1920s. Connally said Uniform Crime Report is based on a hierarchy.

“If you had an incident with multiple crimes, for example, a burglary that involved an assault and a large destruction of property, it used to be, that was recorded in a hierarchy, that would have just been reported as the highest crime, it would have been reported as one burglary,” Connally said. “Under Incident Based Reporting… that’s reported as a separate burglary, a separate assault and a separate destruction of property, they’re called ‘Lesser Included Offenses’ now. So it creates a different picture.”

Connally said there are several encouraging things in the report including a 26% decrease in stolen vehicles.

“We had 200 less cars stolen this year… and that’s less than both the last two years, but it’s still way too many for a community of our size. That’s an area of crime that, really, with the help of the community, we can have a lot bigger impact on that. Just last week, we had four vehicles stolen that had the keys in the car and the car running.”

Connally said with all the crimes reported, the underlying cause is an issue.

“Alcohol, drug addiction, mental health issues, a lot of these are the root causes of crime and these are a lot of the issues that we need to work in,” Connally said. “I’ve seen a lot of great response from our community in these areas, we have the opioid task force, we’ve got some new treatment centers.”

One of the increases in reported crimes was in the area of aggravated assault, which could include someone being shot, someone with broken bones or some type of serious injury.

“Those were up by six, which doesn’t sound like a huge number, but the fact is, it’s too many,” Connally said. “What’s significant about that is, last year’s aggravated assaults, 47% were domestic related, in other words, involved some type of intimate family relationship or relationship by child. This year, 58% were domestic related… that’s something that we also need to work on. When we go to domestics and domestic assaults, we try to provide information on resources that are available and we need to keep pushing that as well.”

 

The St. Joseph Police Department’s 2018 Annual Crime Summary:

There were six homicides reported in 2018, compared to eight in 2017.

There were 36 rapes reported in 2018, which is the same number reported in 2017.

There were 63 robberies reported in 2018, compared to 97 in 2017.

Aggravated Assault – 280 aggravated assaults were reported in 2018, compared to 274 in 2017. Of the aggravated assaults reported in 2018, 58% were domestic related, compared to 47% in 2017.

Violent crime – Violent Part I crime was down 7% for 2018, compared to 2017, with 386 crimes reported. In 2017, 415 rimes were reported.

Arson – 12 arsons were reported in 2018, compared to 15 in 2017.

Burglary – 723 burglaries were reported in 2018, compared to 751 in 2017.

Stealing – 3,436 stealing offenses were reported in 2018, compared to 3,666 in 2017.

Motor vehicle theft – There was a 26% decrease in motor vehicle thefts in 2018, with 574 thefts reported. In 2017, 781 thefts were reported.