Some Great News About Crime in Chico

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐫-𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐨, and that we are in the midst of a new public safety crisis. In most cases that is categorically untrue, per the data provided by Chico PD, and the trends (see graph) actually show crime has been dropping for many years, even as the population grew.

The downward trend continues in most areas, even after we added around 20,000 people to our population overnight in 2018, which actually puts the per-capita levels even lower.

With this in mind, we were pleased to see ChicoER covering the reductions in most categories of crime in Chico today.

“For example there were 347 burglaries reported in 2018 which then dropped to 285 in 2019. Through half of 2020, 123 burglaries have been reported, including 55 in quarter two, which is the second lowest of any figure dating back to the beginning 2018.

Larceny, which includes all thefts of personal property, stayed relatively similar between 2018 (1,843) and 2019 (1,845), but is on pace to drop in 2020 with 867 reports through the first half of the year. The second quarter of 2020 (376) marked the lowest count of the last two-and-a-half years.

In the category of burglary, the number dropped from 347 in 2018 to 285 in 2019, a decrease of 62 reported cases. There have been 123 so far in 2020, which would put Chico on track for another annual decrease.”

Read the whole article here: Crime on the Decline Chico ER