BCA Report: MN Murders Up 58 Percent In 2015
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension released their 2015 Uniform Crime Report Friday, and the report shows a rise in violent crime, with a particularly high rise in reported murders.
Each year, law enforcement agencies across Minnesota report all cases of both violent and non-violent crimes to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. The numbers are compiled into the "Uniform Crime Report" detailing trends compared to previous years.
As police across the nation struggle for the public's confidence, their job of protecting citizens appears to be getting bigger. The statewide summary shows Minnesota witnessed the largest number of violent crimes over the past five years.
According to the report, violent crimes – which include murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault – were up 7.6 percent in 2015. Minnesota saw 2,300 reported rape cases, 3,764 robberies and 6,981 aggravated assaults.
Murders saw a particularly high increase, going from 82 in 2014 to 130 in 2015, an increase of 58 percent.
The state's 130 murders for 2015 reflect a 58 percent jump over the previous year. Not surprisingly, about half of all murders were in the two largest cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Human trafficking cases involving commercial sex acts went up as well, from 35 cases in 2014 to 119 cases in 2015. Rape saw a 16 percent increase, aggravated assaults were up 5.6 percent and robberies climbed 3 percent.
While violent crime numbers rose, both the number of total crimes and crime rate -- number of crimes reported per 100,000 people -- declined from 2014. The bureau reports 135,382 total crimes in 2015, down 1.2 percent from the 136,989 reported crimes in 2014. The crime rate dropped 6.3 percent.
There were three law enforcement pursuits resulting in a fatality in 2015, the same number as 2014. The report also states that bias motivated crimes were down, although only slightly. They dropped from 98 crimes in 2014 to 96 in 2015.
If there's a silver lining to the report it's found in the area of property crimes. Burglary, larceny and motor vehicle thefts dropped by 2 percent. And with 580 arson fires in 2015, that marks the lowest number of arson fires in five years.
In two cases, the state saw drops in crimes cleared by arrests. Seventy-eight percent of homicides were cleared by arrest in 2015, compared to 80 percent the year before. Drug abuse violations cleared by arrest dropped very slightly: 83 percent in 2015 versus 84 percent in 2014.
Of the total crimes reported, 30.5 percent were cleared by arrest or exceptional clearance -- which includes the offender dying, prosecution by a different agency or victims refusing to cooperate, among other things. That number is actually up from 28.8 percent the year before.
The BCA compiles the report from law enforcement agencies across Minnesota. Over 99 percent of police departments and sheriff's offices contributed to the 2015 report, while 95.2 percent of non-city agencies, such as State Patrol and university police, contributed.
Currently, agencies report crime totals for only 10 types of crime, and they give very little information. The BCA is working with agencies to develop a new reporting process that includes 62 types of crime. Agencies will provide much more detail using this reporting system, which is planned for statewide deployment in 2017.
Click here to see the full 168-page report.