U.S. crime declined in 2009

That's according to a new report from the FBI, citing preliminary data. Property crime declined, too, by 4.9 percent. (Car thefts had a huge drop, 17.2 percent.) The Midwest region had declines of 4.6 percent in violent crime, 5.6 percent property crime.

The report also breaks out the numbers for the biggest cities in each state, including Missouri and Kansas. Springfield and Kansas City saw violent crime go up, but only slightly. St. Louis and Independence experienced declines.

On the Kansas side, Topeka, Wichita and Overland Park all saw increases in violent crime, though OP's was very, very small. KCK and Olathe have their 2009 numbers in, but for their 2008 data wasn't available.

One note for people who check the numbers: The FBI shows Kansas City with 100 homicides, which does not include the 10 homicides that were ruled justifiable.

Which states are most crime-ridden?

CQ Press -- the outfit that regularly ranks U.S. cities and states according to crime statistics -- has released the 2010 version of the list. Nevada has the worst ranking, New Hampshire as the best. Missouri was No. 19, and Kansas was No. 24. The rankings always rankle law enforcement, who say they're comparing apples to oranges. The publishers respond here.

KC homicide count stands at 15

Compared to 18 at the same point last year, KCPD reports. Four of this year's homicides have been solved so far. When you add homicides from previous years that were closed in 2010, the closure rate is 47 percent. The area covered by Central Patrol has seen six homicides so far, compared to three in the East Patrol.

Robberies, drug violations hit 10-year high at KU

Burglaries and thefts, though, are at a 10-year low, and crime overall has been trending downward, the Journal-World reports.

Why are crime rates dropping?

If you have a few minutes, Time has a good article here about the drop in crime over the last several years -- and the failure to explain exactly what's causing it. They go over a few theories, including a few that I hadn't heard before. Some experts believe that we're experiencing a drop in a crime because, on average, the U.S. population is older, and most criminals tend to be young.

Others credit a change in the drug trade. Heroin and marijuana are more popular than crack now -- which means drug users now tend to be docile and quiet, not angry and violent.

KC homicide count stands at 8

Compared to 13 at the same time last year. Police have cleared three of this year's cases. When you count homicides from previous years solved in 2010, their clearance rate is 63 percent. Five victims were between the ages of 17 and 24, the largest group.

Crime continues to drop in KCK, mayor says

Dawn Bormann, who covers WyCo for the Star, and Nick Sloan at the Kansan both note this bit from Mayor Joe Reardon's "state of the government" speech yesterday:

He specifically addressed the crime rate.

“We have seen a 48 percent decrease in crime in Kansas City, Kan., over the last 20 years,” he said.

(I tried going back, but couldn't find UCR numbers for 2008 for KCK.)

Missouri ranks No. 2 for rate of black homicide victims

That's according to the Violence Policy Center, a national group that looked at FBI crime statistics from 2007, the most recent available. Missouri had 235 black homicide victims that year, which translates to 34.82 homicides per 100,000 black residents.

Pennsylvania was the only state that had a higher rate. And please note -- the VPC looked at rates, not the number of homicide cases.

You might be asking: Why are they focusing on black homicides? The center, which studies gun violence, says that homicides tend to affect the black community at a much higher rate than the rest of society -- but that most people aren't paying attention. They use "epidemic" to describe the problem, which especially affects young men. That's certainly been true in Kansas City -- in 2008, about 75 percent of homicide victims were African-American.

From the VPC report:

According to the FBI SHR data, in 2007 there were 7,387 black homicide victims in the United States. The homicide rate among black victims in the United States was 20.86 per 100,000. For that year, the overall national homicide rate was 5.30 per 100,000. For whites, the national homicide rate was 3.11 per 100,000.

NYC crime rate hits record low

New York's homicide count was in the 460s at last report, compared to 516 last year. Experts say it hasn't been this low since 1963, when the current record-keeping system started. City officials say the reductions are due to police cracking down on even minor violations.

If the economy tanked, shouldn't crime have gone UP?

The Crime Report, a web site from John Jay College, has a post here about the crime stats released yesterday by the FBI. It's been received knowledge that, whenever the economy sours, crime rates usually increase. Only the feds say that violent crimes and property crimes both declined during the first six months of this year.

Richard Rosenfeld, a criminologist at UMSL, has a few theories why things didn't happen as expected. My favorite, which explains why there was an 18 percent drop in car thefts:

An unheralded feature of the recent crime decline is the double-digit drop in motor vehicle thefts over the past few years.  As newer model automobiles with electronic locking and ignition systems continue to displace older vehicles, substantial decreases in motor vehicle thefts should continue.

Crime dropped in first half of 2009, report says

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.

Cass County Sheriff’s Office releases Criminal Apprehension Unit stats

From the press release:

The Criminal Apprehension Unit (CAU) was formed in July 2008 to enhance the Sheriff’s Office capabilities by providing specialized or directed patrol assignments, surveillance, fugitive apprehension, and conducting other special law enforcement functions as needed.

The C.A.U. is a proactive unit of four deputies designed to seek out fugitives and persons involved in criminal activity who represent a threat to the community. A growing population in Cass County has resulted in additional cases for the courts and as a result, a higher number of court ordered arrest warrants.

U.S. prison population growing at slower rate, report says

The Bureau of Justice Statistics says that America's prison population grew 0.8 percent in 2008 -- which isn't considering it's averaged out at 1.8 percent over the past decade. In the 1990s, the growth rate was about 6.5 percent. More here.

Fewer cops dying on the job, but more are being fatally shot

It's sort of a good-news, bad-news situation, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The good news is that fewer police officers are dying on the job -- so far, the number stands at 113 compared to 122 at the same point last year. That's largely because there are fewer fatal wrecks involving officers. The bad news is that more officers are being fatally shot in the line of duty. That number is 44 this year, compared to 37 at the same point last year.

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund tracks the numbers here.

A lot of hate crimes aren't being counted, experts argue

Just a quick follow-up to yesterday's release of the 2008 hate-crime numbers. NPR has a piece quoting experts who think that a lot of hate crimes aren't reported. Some jurisdictions, for example, might not have the staff to go out and confirm that something really was a hate crime. In other cases, the victims don't want to get the police involved. Illegal immigrants, for example, aren't keen on drawing a lot of police attention. And some gay people don't want to broadcast their sexual orientation.

Is St. Louis really THAT bad?

CQ Press has released its annual list of the worst U.S. cities for crime, and St. Louis is No. 2, worse even than Detroit, a.k.a. the city that brought you Devils Night and General Motors. The publisher says the lists help raise awareness of crime and use the best crime stats available. The Loo's city fathers are incensed, arguing that such rankings aren't accurate because every city measures crime a little bit differently.

Kansas City, by the way, ranked No. 15, slightly worse than Washington, D.C. Independence was 107th.

Kan. had more hate-crime reports in 2008 than Mo.

Kansas reported 113 incidents of hate crimes, compared to 99 in Missouri, the FBI reports. (In 2007, Kansas had 110 incidents -- Missouri had 114.)

Overall, almost 7,800 incidents nationally were reported to the FBI. That represents a slight increase, but the FBI warns us against reading too much into that -- because some police departments are a little flaky when it comes to passing their numbers to the feds. Some year, they remember to file a report. Other years, they don't. The bureau is very dubious of ranking cities according to these stats.

For another bit of perspective, we should note that most police departments included in the study -- 84 percent -- had NO reports of any hate crimes.

The feds have a full breakdown of the numbers here.

Disabled people 50 percent more likely to be crime victims, study says

And people with cognitive disabilities, such as mental retardation or developmental problems, are targeted more frequently than others, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reports. (More here from CNN.)

Murder, manslaughter down 3.9 percent in 2008, FBI says

Violent crime overall dropped about 1.9 percent, and property crime declined by 0.8 percent, the bureau says.

Report: Year-to-date crime down 25 percent since 2007

That's according to Chief Corwin's blog, though he notes that homicides and arsons are up. We're still holding at 72 homicides for the year, compared to 54 in 2007 and 65 in 2008.

It's easier to predict weather than crime rates

The New York Times makes a great point in this article: Despite all of the studies, research and predictions of doom, we have almost NO IDEA what causes crime rates to go up or down. Notably, crime is down in most cities, despite the horrible economy and elevated rates of unemployment -- things that, you would think, might lead to more crime.

Better policing has been a key in some cases, but abortion rates, drug use, etc. -- none of it can explain the crime rate.

Despite recession, crime drops in biggest U.S. cities

Including Washington and Los Angeles. A lot of experts were warning communities to brace themselves for a crime wave, but that doesn't appear to be happening. One point of comparison, via the Washington Post?

Criminologists point to the Great Depression in the 1930s as a time of relatively low crime compared with the Roaring Twenties, when the country experienced more violence.

KC homicide count stands at 60

Compared to 56 at the same point last year. Of this year's homicides, 40 percent have been cleared. Add cases from past years that were solved during 2009, and the closure rate is 58 percent. More from KCPD here.

Report: More illegal immigrants equals less crime

That's according to this piece from Reason magazine, which quotes several criminologists who say that El Paso, San Diego and other cities with large illegal-immigrant populations tend to be much safer than other communities. (This is especially remarkable in the case of El Paso, which is directly across the border from Juarez, aka The Mouth Of Hell.)

It's an interesting piece, though they don't talk much about drug-related crime. When they say low crime, it seems like they're mostly talking about violent cases.

Hat Tip: Saw this via Andrew Sullivan!

One, two, three . . . Part 2

Topeka isn't the only city having problems keeping track of crime stats. An analysis by The Los Angeles Times found that the LAPD's online crime map failed to include nearly 40% of serious crimes reported in the city.

The map is designed to help residents determine whether their neighborhoods are safe. This is the second major problem that the paper has found with the public maps.

| Bob Cronkleton