ST. PAUL, Minn. – The number of serious crimes committed in Minnesota in 2016 is a significant decrease from the prior year according to a new report.
The annual report is compiled by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, in cooperation with the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program. It focuses most heavily on serious crimes, otherwise known as crime index crimes or Part I crimes, which are classified as such due to the relatively universal definition of the crimes, as well as their severity.
These ten major criminal offenses include criminal homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary – breaking and entering, larceny – theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, human trafficking – commercial sex acts, and human trafficking – involuntary servitude.
In 2016, a total of 130,941 Part I crimes were committed, a 3.3 percent decrease from the 2015 total of 135,382 crimes.
There were 13,407 Part I violent crimes (murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault and the human trafficking crimes) in Minnesota in 2016. This was 0.9 percent increase over 2015.
Murders were down, with 100 compared to 130. Rapes increased 0.9 percent to 2,321. Robberies decreased 1 percent to 3,725 in Minnesota. Aggravated Assaults increased 0.6 percent to total 7,026 total incidents. Human Trafficking – Commercial Sex Acts nearly doubled, with 235 such crimes reported in 2015, compared with 119 in 2015.
Law enforcement agencies across the state had a total of 14,360 employees, including civilian employees. This is a 4.7 percent increase from 2015’s totals.
There were 296 incidents of officers being assaulted, with a total of 350 officers involved. No officer fatalities were recorded in Minnesota 2016, but 183 officers sustained injuries as a result of these assaults.
The report collected the information from the various police departments and sheriff’s offices across the state. In a typical year 94 percent of these responsive agencies submit reports. This year it was 98.3 percent, with the only failures coming from six police departments in cities with populations under 2,500.
