Reported crime dropped 4.6 percent in 2012 compared to 2011, according to a report released by the Bonney Lake Police Department Wednesday afternoon. The report was compiled from the National Incident Based Reporting System, a program that enters data from crimes known to police into a database for statistical tracking. The report included percentage changes in crimes reported from 2011 — both NIBRS crimes and non-NIBRS crimes such as traffic violations, suicides, attempted suicides and domestic violence offenses — four-year trends in NIBRS crimes, four-year trends in types of domestic violence offenses, and the breakdown of adult and juvenile arrests over the past three years.
The Courier-Herald will be speaking with Bonney Lake Police Chief Dana Powers for comment and analysis, but a few items from the report are notable on their own.
Both adult and juvenile arrests saw significant drops in 2012. Adult arrests decreased 10 percent, from 1072 in 2011 to 962 in 2012. Juvenile arrests decreased 26 percent from 82 to 61.
Of the 23 categories of NIBRS crimes, 13 were down in 2012, six rose, and four remained the same. Some categories were merely ebbs and flows in uncommon or otherwise rarely reported crimes; the kind that typically end the year in the single digits. However, the low-report crimes were usually the most grave offenses.
Robbery, intimidation and arson, for example, all rose by significant percentages; but in terms of nominal reporting, robbery rose from four to seven reports, intimidation from one to three, and arson from two to five. Similarly scaled drops occurred in forcible sex offenses, from 13 to seven; non-force sex offenses, from two to zero; kidnapping, from three to one; and extortion, from one to zero.
The number of reports for murder and non-negligent manslaughter remained at one from 2011 to 2012, the Mary Mushapaidzi murder and the November shooting death of a home invader having occurred in those years, respectively.
Reports of embezzlement, pornography and obscene materials, and bribery all remained at zero.
Significant drops were seen in reported assaults, aggravated assault and simple assault alike. Aggravated assault dropped 45.8 percent, from 24 to 13
reported incidents. Simple assault fell 24.1 percent, from 112 to 85.
Drug offenses were down 26.8 percent, from 97 to 71.
Forcible sex offenses and simple assault have both seen clear downward trends in the past four years. The former began at 26 reports in 2009, to 16, to 13, to seven. The latter began at 198 in 2009, to 116, to 112, to 85 in 2012; more than a 57 percent drop over the four-year period.
Drug offenses saw a general drop over the four-year period, after a spike from 173 to 215 reports in 2010. The number of 2012 drug reports were less than a third of the 2010 peak.
Among property crimes, burglary showed the largest increase in 2012 at 33 percent. Reports rose from 91 cases in 2011 to 121 cases in 2012. Auto theft also rose from 27 to 37 reports.
All domestic violence crimes saw a slight decrease of 5.3 percent, from 94 to 89. The most significant nominal drop occurred in domestic simple assaults, from 71 in 2011 to 59 in 2012. Domestic assaults saw their greatest drop in recent years from 2009 to 2010, which saw a 50-report decrease —from 124 to 74 — for simple assaults and a drop from five to two reports for aggravated assault.
