By WHITNEE ICE
St. Joseph Post
The St. Joseph crime rates is down.
The 2020 Crime report analysis reported crime rates are lower than in 2019. Police Chief Chris Connally says overall index crimes were down by just over 11%.
“The index crimes are murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, arson, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft,” Connally tells reporters during a news conference at the Law Enforcement Center.
Connally is encouraged by the lower crime rate, but says improvement is always possible.
“When we look at crime we summarize it but from the day to day operation, we’re always looking at there’s too much crime and we need to go out and reduce it more and more and more, so given the areas are down that’s great but to us it’s never down enough. It never will be down enough,” says Connally.
There were three homicides reported in 2020 compared to two in 2019. There were 23 rapes reported in 2020. There were 35 rapes reported in 2019.
There were 52 robberies reported in 2020 compared to 54 in 2019. 555 burglaries were reported in 2020 compared to 593 in 2019.
41% of all aggravated assaults were domestic related compared to 45% in 2019.
There was a 14% drop in auto thefts last year.