FBI 2019 Crime Report: See Trends In Arizona

ARIZONA— Violent and property crimes decreased in Arizona last year, according to data released by the FBI in its 2019 uniform crime report.

In Arizona, the FBI estimated crime statistics based on reports from 109 of the state’s 126 law enforcement agencies.

The data shows violent crime went down in Arizona from 2018 to 2019. Property crime went down during the same period. In 2019, violent crime in the state changed from 12,110 reported incidents to 11,803. Property crime went from 57,732 down to 55,974 in 2019.

While the same trends rang true in Phoenix, the state's capitol saw an increase in homicides leading up to January 2020, Phoenix Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Mercedes Fortune told Patch.

"In looking into the types of homicides, we saw a connection to domestic violence," she said. "We proactively began a domestic violence campaign, bringing attention to resources for victims and placing that information on billboards."

In southern Arizona, Tucson's violent crime trends were in line with the country's as a whole. But the city saw a slight increase in the number of rapes reported in 2019: 527 compared with 504 in 2018.

A spokesperson for the Tucson Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nationwide, the FBI reported a decrease in both violent and property crime from year to year. Violent crime went from a rate of 383.4 per 100,000 people in 2018 to 379.4 a year later, a decrease of about 0.5 percent. It's the third straight year violent crime decreased nationally, the FBI said.

Property crime numbers with the same control went from 2,209.8 to 2,109.9. There’s been a downward trend nationwide in this category since 2009, with a decrease of 4.1 percent from 2018 to 2019.

Violent crimes are labeled as homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault; property crimes are listed as arson, burglary, larceny theft and motor vehicle theft.

The nationwide downward crime trends continued into 2020, according to an overview of numbers from the first half of the year the FBI released a few weeks ago. But two subcategories in particular, murder and arson, have seen a significant increase in the six months that include the first few months of the coronavirus pandemic.

Murder and non-negligent manslaughter cases reported to the FBI by the 16,554 agencies that submitted last year’s data increased by 14.8 percent from the first half of 2019 to the same period in 2020. Arson increased by an even greater rate — 19.2 percent, the FBI said.

The FBI has issued a caution about the crime data coming in at the local levels.

Lists comparing cities and counties "do not provide insight into the numerous variables that shape crime in a given state, county, city, town, tribal area or region," the FBI said in a statement.

"These rankings lead to simplistic and/or incomplete analyses that can create misleading perceptions that adversely affect communities and their residents,” the statement continued. “Only through careful study and analyses into the range of unique conditions affecting each local law enforcement jurisdiction can data users create valid assessments of crime."