New crime reports more accurate, officials say
STACEY MULICK
More than $8.5 million worth of vehicles, $2 million in jewelry and $5 million in household goods were stolen in Tacoma last year.
But no livestock.
During the year, police arrested 10,102 people and cleared 23 percent of the city’s crimes.
The figures are among the information available in a new form of crime statistics that soon will become standard.
For years, crime statistics have been collected and reported the same way. So-called “Part 1 crimes” – murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, arson, burglary, larceny and car theft – have appeared in annual state and national Uniform Crime Reports.
That method is changing.
The new form – the National Incident-Based Reporting System – gives a broader and what officials say is a more accurate picture of a law enforcement agency’s activity. It also gives more detail on how many crimes have been cleared and the number of arrests made.
“It will be a better depiction of what law enforcement officers are doing,” said Joan Smith, criminal justice information support manager for the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs.
Agencies are moving toward the new crime-reporting system and many have switched already.
The recently released report, Crime in Washington 2011, has a hybrid of the new and old statistics. By next year, all agencies in the state are expected to be using the new method, Smith said.
The 2011 report gives statistics using the new form for several agencies, including Tacoma and Lakewood police and the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. The statistics are for only 2011, so there are no previous years’ figures for comparison.
In addition to the Tacoma statistics, the report shows Lakewood police reported 7,266 offenses, made 2,627 arrests and cleared 28 percent of its crimes.
The Sheriff’s Department reported 20,887 offenses, made 5,731 arrests and cleared 21 percent of its crimes.
There are two major differences between the two collection methods:
• Crime classification. The Uniform Crime Reports divides crimes into Part 1 (murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, arson, burglary, larceny and car theft) and Part 2 (all other crimes.) The Part 1 crimes are used to calculate an agency’s crime index and crime rate.
The new system also divides crimes into two categories – Group A and Group B.
Group A is comprised of 31 crimes, including murder, manslaughter, rape, sexual assault with an object, robbery, simple and aggravated assault, kidnapping, bribery, drugs, forgery, gambling and pornography. For each of the 31 crimes, the report provides the number of offenses, clearances and arrests.
Group B are 10 types of crimes for which only arrest data are collected. Those crimes include bad checks, curfew violations, drunken driving, family offenses and liquor law violations.
• Crime counting. The Uniform Crime Report uses a hierarchy rule in which only the most serious crime in an incident is counted. For example, if a robber takes a victim’s wallet and then beats him, causing serious injuries, that’s a robbery and an aggravated assault. With the hierarchy rule, only the robbery is counted in the statistics.
The new method counts all crimes committed in the same incident. So in a robbery with a serious assault, both crimes are counted.
“It will be more accurate,” Smith said of the new approach.
stacey.mulick@thenewstribune.com
253-597-8268
