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Overall violent, property crimes down in some Arizona cities in first half of 2019

Posted 1/21/20

Preliminary statistics show overall declines in both violent and property crime in the first half of 2019 in the United States compared to the same time frame the previous year, according to FBI …

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Overall violent, property crimes down in some Arizona cities in first half of 2019

Posted

Preliminary statistics show overall declines in both violent and property crime in the first half of 2019 in the United States compared to the same time frame the previous year, according to FBI crime statistics released Tuesday.

The Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report covers January through June 2019. It contains data from more than 14,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide that voluntarily submitted information to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

According to the report, all categories of violent crime offenses decreased between the first half of 2018 and the first half of 2019, including:

  • Robbery (-7.4%)
  • Rape (-7.3%)
  • Murder and non-negligent manslaughter (-3.9%)
  • Aggravated assault (-0.3%)

Property crime also declined during the same period, specifically:

  • Burglary (-11.1%)
  • Motor vehicle theft (-6.7%)
  • Larceny-theft (-4.2%)

Only cities with populations of 100,000 or more were included in the report.

In Arizona, the included cities are Chandler, Gilbert, Glendale, Mesa, Peoria, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Surprise, Tempe and Tucson.

Following the overall downward trend in violent crimes were Gilbert, Glendale, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe and Tucson. For the others experiencing increases in violent crimes, Chandler and Mesa saw more aggravated assaults while Surprise and Peoria saw more robberies and rapes, according to FBI data. The figures shown for the offense of rape were reported using only the revised Uniform Crime Reporting definition of rape.

Only Peoria and Tempe experienced an increase in overall property crime, both with more larceny and motor vehicle thefts in the first six months of 2019 compared to the same period in 2018.

Also of note, Phoenix had fewer arsons in the first six months of 2019 — 104 — compared to 140 in 2018. Scottsdale and Mesa had their number of murders cut in half from 2018 to 2019 over the first six months. Three of Scottsdale’s seven murders in the first half of 2018 came from the hands of one man during a spree of six murders in the Valley that captivated Arizona and the nation.

Regionally, in the West, where Arizona is situated in the report, violent crime is down 5% while property crime is down 6.2%.

The full 2019 report will be released later this year, as well as statistics for the first half of 2020.