By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A summary of St. Joseph crime statistics from 2021 indicates while robberies and burglaries fell dramatically, violent crime rose.
St. Joseph Police Chief Chris Connally says a rise in murders and aggravated assault concerns the department, while he’s pleased to see robberies drop from 52 in 2020 to 39 in 2021 and reported burglaries fall from 560 in 2020 to 400 last year.
“We know that some things are a little bit under-reported, post COVID,” Connally tells reporters gathered at the St. Joseph Police Department. “People are a little more reluctant to call the police, which is part of the problem when it comes to the increase in domestic aggravated assaults. But some things that are traditionally reported pretty solid, burglary being one of those, we’ve had 337 burglaries, that’s the lowest number since the 1990s.”
St. Joseph had eight murders last year compared to only three in 2020. Reports of aggravated assault rose from 240 in 2020 to 337 in 2021. Police report more than 70% of the aggravated assault calls were related to domestic assault.
Connally says there doesn’t seem to be similarities that stand out in the homicides reported to police.
“I’d say if there’s any similarity it’s people trying to settle things with firearms in hand instead of trying to deescalate things in other ways.”
The Crime Analysis Report, 2021 Annual Summary reports 3,550 major crimes reported to the St. Joseph Police Department in 2021, down from 4,257 reported in 2020.
St. Joseph police say 2,285 stealing offenses were reported last year compared to 2,779 reported in 2020.
Rape is traditionally an under-reported crime. Still, 38 rapes were reported in St. Joseph last year compared to 28 in 2020. Connally says some changes in how rape cases are handled might have encouraged more reports.
Whether the coronavirus pandemic played a role is difficult to say, according to Connally.
“It’s really hard to say,” Connally says. “There’s people that are a lot smarter than me that are going to study this years to come that are going to make those determinations, but based on what I see and read across the country there’s an awful lot of professionals out there that are talking about the mental health impact, about the isolation.”
There was a 24% drop in motor vehicle thefts last year, from 427 reported car thefts in 2021 and 565 in 2020.