Crime is Not Welcome in Our District

Crime Prevention Workshop

On Wednesday, Nov. 16, North Monroe Business District held a special FREE Crime Prevention Workshop. Business owners and residents were invited to hear from Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) to find out ways to deter crime at your home or business. This event happened after several businesses in the district had their windows smashed, some multiple times this summer. North Monroe continues to be a nice place to live and shop, and we are working together to stop criminal activity in our streets. Window smashers be warned, crime is not welcome in our district.

Here are some resources from the Spokane Police Department:

Has crime been going up or down?

Recently I overheard someone saying that “crime was down across the country.” I looked at him incredulously and asked, “where have you been getting your news?” I keep on hearing stories from friends, police and fire fighters about local crime and violence going up in Spokane, and around the country. Personally, I have seen a fair amount of violence and criminal activity lately, and it appears to be getting worse. But in all fairness, the news stations don’t really have time to describe all the true stories of crimes, as they tend to focus on politically-bent stories about crime that fits their targeted narratives. And in many people’s worlds, crime is something that happens to other people. You get up, go about your normal day, and don’t really notice what is happening outside your safe little routine bubble. But in reality, that bubble has already burst for many more Americans than it has in years. Property crimes like the random acts of window breaking seem to be happening far too often in our area, and it hurts our small business owners and the people who live and work here.

“…in many people’s worlds, crime is something that happens to other people.”

Lets take a look back: 2019

[From the FBI’s Crime Statistics website Sept. 28, 2020] For the third consecutive year, the estimated number of violent crimes in the nation decreased when compared with the previous year’s statistics, according to FBI figures released today. In 2019, violent crime was down 0.5% from the 2018 number. Property crimes also dropped 4.1%, marking the 17th consecutive year the collective estimates for these offenses declined.

The 2019 statistics show the estimated rate of violent crime was 366.7 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants, and the estimated rate of property crime was 2,109.9 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants. The violent crime rate fell 1.0% when compared with the 2018 rate; the property crime rate declined 4.5%.

These and additional data are presented in the 2019 edition of the FBI’s annual report Crime in the United States. This publication is a statistical compilation of offense, arrest, and police employee data reported by law enforcement agencies voluntarily participating in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program.

Compare that to 2020 and 2021

Then Covid happened, and the George Floyd Riots, and there were lots of arson fires, rapes and murders, then the FBI changed how they ran their national statistics so it is hard to compare national crime statistics against anything that happened after 2020. 

“To provide a confident comparison of crime trends across the nation, the UCR Program performed a NIBRS estimation crime trend analysis. The analysis used NIBRS estimation data of violent and property crimes from 2020 and 2021.” [from the FBI’s Crime Statistics Website Oct. 5, 2022]

The level of crime appears to go up in 2020 from the graph below, but Washington stats go down.

Crime level comparison for Washington State vs National average from 2011-2021

[Source: Crime Data Explorer]

The stats are not in yet for 2022…