The FBI has released a report with preliminary crime statistics for the first six months of 2009, and the results are pretty positive. Violent crime overall was down 4.4 percent, and property crime was down 6.1 percent compared to the same time frame in 2008. Murders dropped 10 percent, and car thefts were down a whopping 18.7 percent.
Closer to home, Kansas City reported an increase in violent crimes -- an increase from 2,930 last year to 3,099 for the first six months of the year. A lot of that was due to an increase in aggravated assaults, which climbed from 1,777 to 1,996. (Murders were also up, from 45 to 50.) Property crime, though, was down substantially -- from 13,531 incidents in 2008 to 12,331 in the first six months of this year.
Independence marked a decline in both violent crime -- from 369 to 358 -- and property crimes -- from 3,832 to 3,407. St. Louis, Springfield and Columbia all saw increases in violent crime.
In Kansas, KCK had fewer property crimes -- while Overland Park had more. (Though it should be noted that OP's numbers are smaller.) Both cities had slight upticks in violent crime.
