SPOKANE, Wash. — The Spokane Police Department's recently released crime numbers show a 15 percent drop in crime so far this year compared to this point in 2018.
According to a preliminary crime report from the SPD, overall crime was down 15.91 percent so far this year when compared to the same time period in 2018. The report looks at property crime and violent crime.
Violent crime is down 15.59 percent so far this year, while property crime is down 15.94 percent, according to the report.
The crimes under the violent crime category of the report include: criminal homicide, rape, commercial robbery, personal robbery and both non-domestic violence aggravated assault and domestic violence aggravated assault.
Property crimes the report included were: residential burglary, garage burglary, commercial burglary, larceny (property theft), vehicle theft and arson.
Spokane crime by area
The north precinct, which is made up of all parts of SPD's jurisdiction north of the Spokane River, had the biggest drop in overall crime at 18.69 percent.
The next biggest drop came from the downtown police service area, which is much smaller in area than the north and south precincts, with a 17.21 percent drop, the report said. The south precinct, which covers everything south of the Spokane River and that isn't a part of downtown, had an 8.85 percent drop, the lowest of the three zones.
The Neva-Wood District, which covers an area separating northwest and northeast Spokane and includes Nevada Street after Euclid Avenue and the surrounding blocks, had the single biggest drop in crime out of all districts in the report. The area saw a 21.77 percent drop in total crime.
The next biggest drops by district came from the Northwest District (18.9 percent), Downtown Precinct (17.21 percent) and the North Central District (17.12 percent).
The smallest drop in crime happened in the Southeast District (1.85 percent), which stretches from as far north as Ninth Avenue and goes almost as far south as 57th Avenue. It also includes main arterials Freya and Ray streets. However, the region is lower than most districts in Spokane in overall crime totals, so that may explain why its drop wasn't as pronounced as other areas.
The neighboring Southwest District also had a smaller drop than other districts at just 4.73 percent.
Changes in crime by type
While not all crimes included in the report dropped in the same amount, all but one type of crime did have some sort of drop.
The only crime that didn't? Commercial robbery, which the report states actually rose 1.69 percent so far this year.
The largest drop for a single crime type was 40 percent for criminal homicide, although this is skewed by the fact that so little of these crimes happen in Spokane, according to the report. There have been three so far this year, while there were five at this point in 2018.
The next biggest drop for a single crime was for rape, with a 24.8 percent drop so far this year, according to the report.
Other than commercial robbery, the next smallest drops came from garage burglary (1.46 percent), arson (2.7 percent), commercial burglary (3.82 percent) and personal robbery (5.52 percent). All other crimes in the report dropped by double-digit percents, or rose, in the case of commercial robbery.
The difference between robberies and burglaries come from robberies include a use or threat of force.
Spokane crime compared to recent national trends, past years
Violent crime in Spokane is decreasing faster than the national violent crime rate when compared to the most recent January to June yearly data from the FBI.
According to the FBI, from 2017-18, violent crime dropped 4.3 percent nationwide compared to the 15.59 percent so far this year in Spokane.
Property crime is also decreasing at a faster rate when compared to the 2017-2018 trends, with a 7.2 percent drop nationwide according to the FBI compared to a 15.94 percent drop in Spokane.
The following video is a report on what to do if you see a theft in Spokane.