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Crime rates are falling and domestic violence is increasing
Crime rates plunged in cities and counties in the United States in the second half of March, as the coronavirus pandemic forced millions of residents to stay inside their homes.
Police recorded far fewer service calls, crime incidents and arrests in the last two weeks of March than each of the previous six weeks, according to USA TODAY analysis of crime data released by 53 organizations of law enforcement in two dozen states. The analysis is one of the largest studies measuring the impact of the coronavirus on crime and the police.
Massive reductions in traffic and arrests of up to 92% in some jurisdictions have contributed to a sharp decline in drug and DUI offenses. Residential thefts and burglaries have decreased with fewer stores open and vacancies, and some agencies have experienced fewer assaults and thefts. Bookings in each of the two dozen county jails monitored by the press have dropped by at least a quarter since February.
At the same time, calls for family disorder and violence increased from 10% to 30% among the many police services that provided data. Several also noted a slight increase in complaints of public nuisances such as loud noise from parties. The Baltimore Police Department, for example, received 362 loud music complaints in the last two weeks of March, almost the same as their total for the month of February.
The trends reflect both a deliberate reduction in police activity and police-initiated arrests and the impact of home maintenance orders that closed huge swathes of Main Street and pushed people into their homes and out of traditional crime hotspots, such as bars, clubs and social events.
The United States confirmed its first case of coronavirus on January 20 and its first death in late February. But it wasn’t until March 13 that U.S. President Donald Trump ended a national emergency and normal life in America.
The study compared weekly totals between February 2 and March 28. Rapporteurs analyzed daily calls for services and incident data published by 30 local police and sheriff agencies, ranging from those covering big cities like Dallas to small communities like St. The analysis of arrests was made from prisoner registers in nearly two dozen county jails in six states, which local newspapers in the USA TODAY Network already track daily.
Many police services say they are intentionally arresting fewer people to prevent the potential spread of coronavirus in prisons. Police in Delray Beach, Florida, are cutting back on proactive policing, such as drug stops. In the nearby town of Gainesville, Florida, officers are issuing more and more summons instead of making arrests for minor crimes, said chief police inspector Jorge Campos.
This is not what did not apply (the law), said Campos. It was about finding alternative ways to deal with the problem rather than making physical arrests.
Overall, service calls dropped by at least 12% and incidents by at least 21% in most police services. County jails after March 15 reserved those arrested at half the rate as before.
In Montgomery County, Maryland, for example, the crime rate dropped after Governor Larry Hogan closed all bars, restaurants, gymnasiums, cinemas and large rallies by March 16 decree. He has since issued a statewide mandatory stay order as positive cases in the state have exceeded 1,000. On Friday, they exceeded 2,300, according to the CDC.
Nationally, coronavirus cases have exceeded 239,000 and deaths have exceeded 5,400, the CDC reported on Friday.
The Montgomery County Police Department, just outside of Washington, DC, has recorded 13% fewer appeals and more than a third fewer criminal incidents in the past two weeks. March compared to the previous six weeks.
The agency also has limited interaction between officers and the public, they no longer make traffic stops unless absolutely necessary and issue citations for minor offenses in order to avoid arrests, said the chief of the Montgomery County Police Department, Marcus Jones.
We have sort of refocused our engagement and tried to make sure our officers are safe, said Jones, adding that two of the 1,300 departmental officers tested positive for the coronavirus and a few others had to self-initiate in quarantine.
But domestic violence has increased, although most other crimes have decreased, Jones said. The data shows that Montgomery County police have seen a 21% increase in these calls in the past two weeks, an average of 39 per day.
This is something we have been waiting for unfortunately knowing that people are going to be quarantined at home, said Jones.
Other agencies are experiencing similar trends.
Detroit received 769 domestic violence calls in the last two weeks of March, an increase of 9% from the previous weeks. Tucson, Arizona, police recorded 292 incidents of domestic violence, also up 9%. In Santa Rosa, Calif., Which has been under the control of an on-site shelter since March 17, city police have seen calls for family troubles drop from 42 per week to 51.
In county prisons, arrests for domestic violence have remained relatively stable even though the total number of detainee bookings has decreased by about half, according to the data.
One of the fastest decreases in prison reservations occurred in the parish of Lafourche, Louisiana, where on Friday the 185th coronavirus infection was announced in the community of approximately 100,000 people. The Lafourche Parish Correctional Complex now reserves as many people per week as it does per day in February. He eliminated face-to-face visits.
Officers from Floridas Volusia County, where Daytona Beach is located, had charged approximately 25 people a week with driving under the influence of alcohol before mid-March. It fell to only 6 thereafter.
The number of senior booking agencies also fell during the same period from a dozen per week to just two in the last two weeks of March. The elderly are among the most exposed to serious complications from coronavirus.
These trends are reflected nationally. In the counties reviewed by USA TODAY, the average week included approximately 300 DUI bookings. Now it’s around 100. Arrests of seniors are about one-sixth of what they were in February.
According to FBI data, several police departments have also recorded a significant drop in drug, narcotic and alcohol crimes, some of the most common methods of imprisoning people in America. These incidents in the second half of March fell 76% in Denver, 87% in Providence, Rhode Island and 45% in Seattle, the epicenter of the country’s first major coronavirus epidemic, according to data.
Drug charges often result from traffic stops, said Jones. But these stops have virtually stopped in parts of the country in the past two weeks. In Cincinnati, police averaged 384 traffic stops per week before mid-March, but 39 per day after a 90% drop. In Santa Monica, California, traffic stops fell from 182 per week to 14. They fell 79% in Baltimore and 46% in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
In many regions, the decrease in traffic stops has been accompanied by fewer DUI incidents, which likely subsided after the bars closed, said Seattle police spokesman Patrick Michaud. Virginia Beach, Montgomery County, and Seattle police each recorded less than half the number of DUIs in the second half of March compared to previous weeks on average.
There is just less opportunity crime when the opportunity disappears because everyone is spending time inside, Michaud said, adding that residential burglaries have also decreased in Seattle in recent weeks.
But as Americans move into family life, some also seem to struggle with thin walls and noisy neighbors.
In addition to Baltimore, Virginia Beach police have received 249 public nuisance and loud party complaints since mid-March, an increase of 87% from the previous weeks. Calls for general noise nuisance to Cincinnati police have increased from 109 per week to 154. Fargo, North Dakota, police have received 36 complaints of disturbances and loud parties, compared to 26 on average the previous weeks.
Contributor: Hannah Winston, USA TODAY NETWORK
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