DENVER — Overall crime in Colorado was up 3.9% in 2020 compared with the year before, and motor vehicle theft skyrocketed by 38.6%, according to statistics released Tuesday by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Last year, 353,528 crimes were reported statewide, up almost 4% from 2019, and much of that increase was due to property crimes, which were up 10.4%, CBI said in a press release.
Colorado reported 30,942 incidents of motor vehicle theft, up from 22,321 in 2019. The increase was so dramatic that Gov. Jared Polis has directed the Colorado Department of Public Safety to create a statewide task force to work with the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority and develop a statewide plan to reduce those thefts, according to CBI.
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Some other statistics from the CBI report:
- Reports of murder and manslaughter increased 28.63% between 2019 (227) and 2020 (292).
- Violent crimes increased 6.52% percent, from 24,829 in 2019 to 26,447 in 2020. That includes murder and manslaughter, aggravated assault (up 17.44%), robbery (up 6.49%) and sexual offenses. The only one of the areas to see a decrease was sexual offenses, which was down 16.92%.
- Overall, crimes against persons (such as murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, assault and human trafficking) were almost flat between 2019 (64,106) and 2020 (64,121).
- Crimes against society (such as drug offenses, gambling, pornography, prostitution and animal cruelty) were down 26.1%. There were 31,275 reported crimes in 2020, compared with 42,318 in 2019.
CBI said the data were current as of March 8; however, not all law-enforcement agencies may have submitted their crime statistics for last year.
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