US Violent Crime Falls Slightly in 2014

“We hope this information will become part of a balanced dialogue in communities and in the media — a dialogue that will help to dispel misperceptions, foster accountability and promote transparency in how law enforcement personnel relate to the communities they serve”, Comey wrote in a special “Message from the Director” that accompanies the release of crime data from 2014. Not all agencies in the United States participate in the voluntary reporting system, which had left a considerable gap in the ongoing public discussion.

Statewide, violent crime in Connecticut was down by 9.7 percent in 2014, including a drop of 12.2 percent in rape and 5.5 percent in murders.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation reported Monday that the nation’s crime rate decreased past year, with violent crime falling 0.2 percent and property crime falling 4.3 percent, compared with 2013.

“To our police officers, to our public safety officials, thank you, ” Malloy said in a statement.

Seventeen states experienced an increase in violent crime over the a year ago.

Comey also called for every law enforcement agency to submit its crime statistics into the National Incident-Based Reporting System, a database that includes information on the circumstances surrounding a crime.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy hailed the numbers at the state police headquarters in Middletown, saying that the state has made great strides in recent years. Though the FBI does collect data on the number of justifiable homicides reported by police, many departments do not voluntarily report this information to the FBI. New Jersey saw a 10.7 percent rise in rapes under the old definition. He also said said that after heated protests began in Ferguson, he asked his staff for statistics on how many black people are shot by police, but they couldn’t provide a number. There has been a 15 % drop over the last two years alone.

Police say that despite statistics suggesting being an officer has gotten safer, the sustained protests over the previous year have left them feeling under siege and unappreciated, according to interviews with current and former law enforcement officers as well as relatives of police. Property crimes include burglaries, thefts and auto thefts.

For the first six months of this year, the statewide numbers in Connecticut showed that both crime and arrests were down.

According to nj.com, the more than 23,300 violent crimes in the state in 2014 represent a 9.3 percent decline from 2013.

One extreme, Simpson said, would be Baltimore, which Sperling’s Best Places, a demographics outfit that crunches numbers including FBI data, lists Portland at 62 out of 100 for violent crime, versus Maryland’s largest city at 91 on the same scale. Proposition 47 was passed by California’s voters in November and turns most drug possession crimes and property crimes in which the value of the property does not exceed $950 into misdemeanors.