Serious crimes in the county dropped overall by 1.2 percent this year compared to the same time period in 2014, but a number of categories saw large increases, according to a report county police plan to discuss with the County Council’s Public Safety Committee Monday afternoon.
Categories that saw increases include murders, which rose from 14 in 2014 to 24 in 2015, and rapes, which rose from 121 to 236. The report uses the number of crimes reported from Jan. 1 to Nov. 23, 2014, to compare with the statistics from Jan. 1 to Nov. 23.
The 95 percent increase in the number of reported rapes was the most dramatic. While the report did not discuss reasons for the increase, it’s expected to be a topic of discussion during Monday’s meeting. Update – 3:45 p.m., Monday – Police attributed the increase in rapes to a definitional change related to how incidents are reported.
Other serious crime categories—referred to as Part 1 crimes by police—saw smaller increases. The number of robberies increased from 548 in 2014 to 557 in 2015 and aggravated assaults rose from 757 to 866.
However, the number of burglaries decreased significantly when compared to 2014, from 2,151 to 1,703.
Overall, the number of serious crimes decreased from 15,533 to 15,384 through Nov. 23, when compared to the same time period in 2014.
The full-year 2015 crime statistics will likely be released early next year.
In 2014, police reported a slight increase in serious crimes after having the lowest crime rate in the past decade in 2013.
