Has the crime rate in Elk Grove gone up in the past few years? Many long-time residents believe that crime is way up in the past 20+ years. Some current residents believe that crime is “out of control”. Do the numbers back that up? Or is it a case of the Internet and Social Media bringing them more to the forefront?
Elk Grove became a city in 2000. Prior to that, it was an unincorporated area of the county of Sacramento. From 2000 to 2006, the city operated under a contract with the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department to provide police services. In 2006, the Elk Grove Police Department was established. Crime numbers were not kept until 2008, so we don’t really know what the crime rate was prior to that. We can speculate it was lower, but there are not any numbers to corroborate that.
What we can see are the numbers from 2008 to 2018
Elk Grove Crime Rate 2008-2015
in 2016, EGPD Chief Lehner provided data on crime rates for 2005-2015 for cities with over 100,000 residents. Elk Grove did not start participating until 2008 in the data tracking. The graph shows a steady decline from 2008 to 2013. In 2014 the rate spiked upwards and dropped down again in 2015.
On the issue of crime in Elk Grove, in all categories but one, crime dropped from 2015 to 2016. The only category that increased was rape.
The numbers for 2016 & 2017 are very similar. Total violent crime was up slightly and property crime was down slightly. Roughly 60% of violent crime is related to domestic violence.
Using the same graph for 2005-15, the violent crime rate for 2017 is 3.24 per 1000 people. That would put it just above 2013, which was the lowest point on the graph above.
The property crime rate would be 13 per 1000 people, which would be the lowest rate since the city starting recording the data.
2018 Elk Grove Police Department Annual Report
In 2018, robbery was down 5.1%. Burglary dropped 13%. Motor Vehicle theft dropped by 15.6%. Larceny, or theft, rose 9.8%
Over the years some crimes have been reclassified and laws have changed. The definition of rape was changed in 2013, which led to an increase in the numbers. The passage of Proposition 47 in 2014 reclassified some crimes from felonies to misdemeanors.
Based on the crime rate numbers, violent crime and property crime is lower in 2018 than it was in 2008.
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