Idaho State Police shows 8.83% decrease in offenses, but some towns still seeing crime climb

Crime is going down in Kootenai County.

According to the Idaho State Police Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Kootenai County has seen an 8.83% decrease in offenses from 2017, when crimes were at 59.99% per 1,000 people, to 2018, when they dipped to 54.69% per 1,000.

On Monday, the ISP Bureau of Criminal Identification released its annual Crime in Idaho report for 2019. This report contains statistics gathered from law enforcement agencies across he state, including from the Coeur d'Alene, Spirit Lake and Post Falls police departments and the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office. It provides information about: the statewide crime profile; crimes against persons, property and society; the arrest profile; hate crime in Idaho; law enforcement officers killed or assaulted; crimes by jurisdiction and more.

"The statistics contained in the report present a picture as to the nature and volume of crime in our state," ISP director Col. Kedrick Wills stated in a news release that accompanied the report.

"They can also provide valuable information to assist law enforcement in identifying specific crime activity facing local criminal justice agencies, such as juvenile crime, domestic violence, child abuse, crime motivated by hate, property crime, and drug/alcohol related crime."

Kootenai County experienced these increases from 2017 to 2018:

Kidnapping: 66.67%, from 12 to 20 incidents

Pornography: 47.37%, from 19 to 28 incidents

Embezzlement: 44.44%, from 18 to 26 incidents

Robbery: 33.3%, from 21 to 28 incidents

Sexual: 23.08%, from 169 to 208 incidents

Drug/narcotic: 11.53%, from 2,629 to 2,932 incidents

Kootenai County experienced these decreases from 2017 to 2018:

Extortion: 60%, from five to two incidents

Burglary: 28.84%, from 631 to 449 incidents

Arson: 25%, from 28 to 21 incidents

Destruction: 22.09%, from 955 to 744 incidents

Larceny: 18.04%, from 2,505 to 2,053 incidents

Homicide: 16.67%, from six to five incidents

Assault: 9.62%, from 1,809 to 1,635 incidents

Although crime is decreasing in general in Kootenai County, it is trending up in Post Falls at a 9.6% increase from 2018 and in Spirit Lake, which experienced a 20% increase from 2018.

Despite the increase in its annual crime statistics, Spirit Lake Police Chief Dennis Sanchez said Spirit Lake remains one of the safest communities in the region.

"There are several factors that have led to this increase," he said. "There has been an obvious increase in population and the number of people visiting our community, enhanced reporting practices and procedures within the department, an increase in the proactiveness of our officers and more community engagement which has led to an increase in public trust of the department and therefore an increase in the likelihood of reporting after having been victimized."

Statewide, Teton County, in central Idaho on the Wyoming border, and Washington County, near Boise, experienced a 77.67% increase and a 64.09% increase, respectively. On the flipside, in south central Idaho, Butte County reported a 52.39% decrease in crime while Franklin County on the southeastern tip of the Gem State saw a 45.34% dip in crime.

Across Idaho in general, animal cruelty, extortion, embezzlement, kidnapping, drugs and narcotics and sexual crimes are on the rise.

ISP publishes this data to allow the public, academia, law enforcement and criminal justice agencies timely report capabilities without having to submit public records requests. It’s easily searchable on the website so the public can view the most current and archived Crime in Idaho publications. The report is helpful for Idahoans who value public safety and want a better idea of what’s happening from a statistical perspective in their own community.

View the report: https://bit.ly/2ZH3Hj2