Living in Maricopa County just got a whole lot safer as crime rates continue to drop.
In fact, Maricopa County’s crime rate and property offenses dropped significantly more than the country as a whole, according to The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s report on Crime in the United States for 2014.
Last year, Maricopa County saw a 3.8 percent drop in violent crime and a 5.5 percent drop in property offenses compared to the nation’s overall 0.2 percent decline in violent crime and 4.3 percent decline in property offenses.
The statistics for Maricopa County’s crime rate decline were put together by the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
“These figures are the latest indication that our current criminal justice policies are having the desired effect of protecting the community from serious and violent offenders as well as repeat felony offenders,” said Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery.
The county’s overall crime rate, not just in violent crime and property offenses, is still considerably higher than the U.S., which Montgomery explained was the result of Arizona being a border state to Mexico.
Part of the newly released statistics also show property and violent crime totals for the state. ABC15 compiled numbers from the past decade for comparison.
A downward trend can be seen in Arizona’s property crime totals, with numbers regularly decreasing over most years.
Take a look at the chart below to see the overall trend with Arizona’s property crime totals since 2005.
Arizona’s violent crime totals shown no major trend, although numbers have decreased for the second year in a row.
Scroll over the chart below to view Arizona’s violent crime statistics from the past ten years.
“Arizona experiences disproportionate criminal impacts related to illegal immigration, human smuggling and drug trafficking,” said Montgomery. “Our success in reducing crime by a greater margin than the U.S. as a whole is all the more remarkable when viewed in this context.”
“But rather than accept these lower levels of crime as a new baseline standard, we will continue applying and expanding these policies wherever necessary so that we may continue to push our crime rates even lower.”
According to the offenses known to law enforcement, Maricopa and Pima rank the highest in crime among the other Arizona counties.
This report also includes information on clearances, persons arrested and police employee data from counties across the country.
