Violent crime – murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault, decreased more than 3 percent, going from 2,008 incidents in 2008 to 1,943 in 2009, according to a preliminary report issued Monday by the FBI. Property crime – burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft and arson – fell more than 7 percent, going from 15,110 incidents in 2008 to 13,962 in 2009.

The preliminary report only listed crimes in cities with populations of 100,000 or more. Besides Tacoma, Bellevue, Seattle, Spokane and Vancouver were listed in Monday’s …

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The FBI released a preliminary report today on the crime trends from last year in the country. You can find specifics here.

Here’s the report from the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI says violent crime dropped in 2008 in the United States, falling 2.5 percent compared to the previous year.

Property crimes also fell, by 1.6 percent, according to the preliminary data collected by the FBI. Nationwide, murder and manslaughter dropped 4.4 percent.

There were some increases, though. In small cities with less than 10,000 residents, murder rose 5.5 percent, rape increased

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The FBI this morning released the preliminary crime statistics for 2007.

The good news is there were declines reported in violent and property crimes. That mirrors what Tacoma and Pierce County experienced last year (and what we reported in March.)

Here are some highlights from the agency’s press release:

* All four of the violent crime offense categories declined nationwide in 2007 compared with data from 2006. Forcible rape decreased 4.3 percent, and murder and non-negligent manslaughter declined 2.7 percent. Robbery and aggravated assault offenses each decreased 1.2 percent.

* Forcible rape declined in all

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It wasn’t Tacoma, though the county’s largest city did come in third.

Puyallup led the list with 86.7 crimes per 1,000 residents. Fife was second with 86.5.

Tacoma’s crime rate was 83.4. (The crimes counted to calculate the crime rate are murders, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, thefts, motor vehicle thefts and arsons.)

The information comes from the preliminary 2007 crime statistics posted on the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs web site.

Other notes from the preliminary crime stats:

* 21 law enforcement agencies were listed in Pierce County.

*

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The FBI released its first look at crime that occurred in 2007.

This preliminary report covered only the first six months of 2007 but revealed that:

Each of the violent crime offense categories (murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) decreased nationwide during January through June 2007 when compared to the corresponding months in 2006. Murder decreased 1.1 percent, forcible rape declined 6.1 percent, robbery decreased 1.2 percent, and aggravated assault decreased 1.7 percent.

Violent crime increased 1.1 percent in non-metropolitan counties and 1.1 percent in cities with populations of 10,000

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The King County Sheriff’s Office recently added a searchable crime statistics tool to its Web site.

The tool allows folks to search for crime stats for their neighborhoods. I gave it a quick try, and it seems pretty user friendly.

The information is updated the first week of each month.

Go crazy.

The New York Times has a story in today’s paper about a recent study that found violent crime is on the rise again across the country.

The story begins:

Violent crime rose by double-digit percentages in cities across the country over the last two years, reversing the declines of the mid-to-late 1990s, according to a new report by a prominent national law enforcement association.

While overall crime has been declining nationwide, police officials have been warning of a rise in murder, robbery and gun assaults since late 2005, particularly in midsize cities and the Midwest.

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I’ve got a story in today’s paper that reveals the 2006 violent crime stats for the Tacoma Police and Pierce County Sheriff’s departments.

If you want to spend more time looking at and analyzing crime stats, there are plenty of places to look.

The Tacoma Police Department provides citywide and sector-based stats and calls for service reports on its web site.

The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department hosts the a crime data page that allows people to search for crimes within a .5-mile radius of a given address in Bonney Lake, Tacoma, Puyallup, South Prairie, Edgewood

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The Washington Association of Sheriffs & Police Chiefs is out with its annual mid-year crime report.

There’s some good news for Tacoma (and it’s a little surprising, at least to me, given the reports of gang violence this year.) Violent and property crimes are down in the city. It’s the same story for Federal Way and King and Thurston counties.

Pierce County has mixed results. Violent crime is up slightly and property crime is down. That’s the trend for the entire state.

I just posted a story on our homepage with more complete numbers. A more

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An Olympia company has dipped into the world of Internet-based crime stats.

Looking Glass Analytics announced today they’ve launched a new web site, www.WACrimestats.net. Users can browse – for free – crime statistics from Washington law enforcement agencies.

The information is based upon the stats provided to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs through the Uniform Crime Report. That’s the standard reporting technique and the report that feeds the annual FBI report.

Each user can tailor the site to provide stats by crime, jurisdiction, etc. Crimes are broken down by reported crimes and

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