SAGINAW, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Michigan hosts four of the top 20 most violent cities in the nation, says a recent Federal Bureau of Investigation report released this week.
In 2021, Saginaw replaced Detroit as the Michigan city with the highest violent crime. But on the national scale, Saginaw occupies the fourth and Detroit occupies the fifth position.
Other cities on the list include Kalamazoo and Lansing, and several cities with the fewest property crimes including: West Bloomfield, Orion Township, Independence Township, and White Lake Township.
The data comes from the FBI who collected from 852 municipalities containing more than 30,000 residents.
“Overall, the analysis shows violent and property crime remained consistent between 2020 and 2021,” the FBI said of national crime trends. The agency noted that violent crime increased by 1% nationally, including a 4.3% increase in homicides.
Michigan outpaced the national averages of violent crime and experienced a tremendous increase in property crimes. Michigan’s violent crimes saw a 4.7% increase and a 5.8% increase in the number of property crimes. However, statewide homicides have decreased 6.3% from 2020-2021.
“Law enforcement during 2021, 2020 has been dealing with some extraordinary times,” Michigan Sheriffs Association Director Matthew Saxton said, “Whether they were defunded or not, the profession has been demonized by federal, state and local politicians and has really hampered law enforcement’s ability to perform their duties of keeping communities safe.”
While there seem to be some general trends from the 2021 data showing an increase in particular crimes in Michigan, the FBI report only features roughly 63% of all law enforcement agencies in the country. Major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago did not share data for the report. More than 90% of Michigan’s agencies shared data with the FBI.
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The data is also unique in that previously, the FBI has pooled data from two different reporting methods, the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). However, this year, according to the FBI, it used solely data collected via NIBRS submissions.
The FBI collaborated with the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) to make the transition to solely NIBRS reporting. NIBRS also incorporates arestee demographics such as age, sex, and race.
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