Crime rates fall 3.7% in Utah

WASHINGTON — Crime rates rose by 2.1 percent nationwide last year — the first jump in 10 years — but they dropped by 3.7 percent in Utah, according to annual FBI figures released Monday.

Still, murders in Utah were up a whopping 56 percent, rapes were up 3.8 percent and motor vehicle theft was up a slight 0.8 percent.

Bruce Brown, field services manager for the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI), said 2001 was an abnormal year for homicides. He said homicides had been declining until 2001. So far this year, there have been less than 30 homicides statewide.

The violent crime rate itself was down 4.26 percent in 2001, according to state statistics.

Overall, Brown said, the 10-year trend in Utah is a falling crime rate, both in terms of hard numbers and crimes per capita.

"Community-oriented policing efforts seem to be helping," Brown said. "A lot of people are more conscious of crime. There's been a lot of publicity and reports on Neighborhood Watch and how we can take our streets back."

Other major crimes in Utah were also down: robberies, down 3.6 percent; aggravated assault, 11.5 percent; burglary, 3.8 percent; and larceny-theft, 3.8 percent.

The FBI said Utah had 96,307 reported crimes in 2001, compared to 99,958 in 2000.

Of that, 85 percent of the crime occurred in the Salt Lake City-Ogden and Provo-Orem metropolitan areas. It said another 10 percent occurred in cities outside metro areas, and 5 percent occurred in other rural areas.

Statewide, the FBI said Utah agencies reported 5,314 violent crimes — or one for every 427 residents in the state. It also said Utah agencies reported 90,993 property crimes.

Crime totals in Utah included 67 murders (up from 43 the previous year); 896 rapes (up from 863); 1,197 robberies (down from 1,242); 3,154 aggravated assaults (down from 3,563); 13,804 burglaries (down from 14,348); 70,676 larceny-thefts (down from 73,438); and 6,513 motor vehicle thefts (up from 6,461).

Law enforcement agencies that reported the most overall serious crimes in Utah were Salt Lake City, 16,503; Salt Lake County sheriff (unincorporated areas), 14,996; West Valley City, 6,975; Ogden, 5,242; Provo, 3,865; Murray, 3,516; Sandy, 3,419; Orem, 3,318; West Jordan, 2,984; and Layton, 2,290.

Salt Lake City had the most homicides at 18, followed by Salt Lake County unincorporated areas, 11; Ogden, nine; and the cities of Layton, Sandy and West Valley reported two each.