By WHITNEE ICE
St. Joseph Post
Burglary and Robbery rates are down in St. Joseph.
Police Chief Chris Connally says 2020’s robbery reports are the lowest they have been since 2002.
“We had 52 robberies, on a high year we’ve had as much as 100 robberies so that’s pretty significant,” Connally tells reporters during a news conference at the Law Enforcement Center.
“Burglary, that’s another one that was down, last year. I said it was the lowest year since 2000. Well, now this past year was the lowest year,” Connally says.
Overall, Connally was pleasantly surprised at the decrease in crime rates.
“I think in burglaries, it may have contributed during that time period where everybody was home,” he said. “I kind of was a little surprised to see us continue to see those decrease, pleasantly surprised, and those are things were always striving for.”
Connally says shoplifting numbers went down drastically.
“Some of the things that contributed to that really had to do with when you went to Walmart and some of those stores they shut things down to where there was one opening. From our prospective that’s great for crime prevention,” Connally says.
Connally says having one entry and exit point to stores helps reduce robbery.
One crime that went up in St. Joseph was arson. There were 30 arsons in 2020 - nearly tripled the 11 arsons reported in 2019.
“There were a number of vehicle arsons that contributed to that number jumping up,” Connally says.