Modesto sees drop in violent and property crimes in 2021, in line with longer trend
The Modesto Police Department is reporting that violent and property crimes both declined by 2% last year when compared with 2020.
Violent crime — including homicide, aggravated assault, rape and robbery — has dropped every year in Modesto since 2016, from a high of 2,104 reports that year, to 1,578 reports in 2021.
Property crime — including burglary, larceny and auto theft — has dropped every year since 2015, from 10,123 reports that year to 5,223 last year.
The statistics for this story are from a presentation Police Chief Brandon Gillespie gave last week at the City Council’s Safety and Communities Committee meeting, and the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, which collects data from 18,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide.
Gillespie’s presentation covered 2020 and 2021. The FBI statistics are from 2010 to 2020.
But one offense remains stubbornly high — so-called quality of life crimes. These often are violations of the city’s municipal code and include illegal camping, trespassing, drug possession and public drinking.
Residents made 9,526 complaints about quality of life offenses in 2021, according to Gillespie’s presentation. The number of complaints essentially matched the numbers for 2019 and 2020.
Gillespie said quality of life and traffic offenses are among the top complaints he gets from residents. He said he expects quality of life complaints to decline because of the department’s Community Health and Assistance Team and Park Rangers program.
The Police Department started CHAT last year. The program’s civilian outreach specialists respond to calls involving homeless people. The department expects to soon have four rangers patrolling city parks, trails and other public open space that drew the most number of complaints.
The use of these civilian employees lets Modesto’s police officers spend more time on their primary responsibilities. And these civilian employees can provide a consistent presence in parks and other public spaces that police officers cannot.
Modesto has seen big declines in some crimes.
For instance, auto thefts have dropped every year from 2015, from 1,735 reports that year to 917 in 2021. Burglaries have been falling since 2012, from 2,571 reports that year to 583 in 2021.
Pandemic played a role
Gillespie said some of the decline in the past two years in property crimes can be attributed to the pandemic, especially during 2020 when more people were staying home and driving less.
But he also attributed the continued overall drop in crime to Modesto’s police officers. Gillespie said he cannot emphasize enough that despite the risks from the pandemic and the national conversation about how officers should police their communities, Modesto officers keep doing their jobs.
Gillespie said the department also has been working smarter. He gave two examples.
The Police Department now has license plate readers in 14 locations across Modesto. He said that is a roughly threefold increase in a few years. The readers spot stolen cars and cars linked to other crimes.
And Gillespie said the department has focused over the last several years on identifying and then arresting the small number of thieves responsible for a large number of the property crimes.
The FBI statistics show that except for increases in 2012 and 2015, property crime reports have steadily declined, from 9,383 reports in 2010 to 5,340 reports in 2020. Gillespie’s presentation showed a further drop with 5,223 reports in 2021.
Mixed picture for violent crimes
The statistics for violent crime reports are mixed. There were 1,398 reports in 2010, and the numbers kept rising each year, before peaking at 2,104 reports in 2016. The reports then started to decline each year, falling to 1,603 reports in 2020. Gillespie’s presentation showed 1,578 reports in 2021.
Gillespie’s presentation included Police Department staffing.
As of Feb. 1, the department was allocated 210 sworn officers — from Gillespie to the newest hire being trained at the police academy — and had filled 190 of those positions. The department was allocated 104 civilian employees and had filled 86 of those positions.
“My push and my focus is to fill those vacancies” he said when asked about the 20 openings among police officers. Gillespie said one of the challenges is that it can take up to a year to replace an officer who retires or leaves the department for another reason.
