If there’s a silver lining in the ongoing pandemic for Emeryville, it’s been a sharp drop in crime data in our city particularly property crime.
After an annual record 2600 reports in 2019, 2020 saw a 44% decrease in crime reports. Crime in 6 of the 13 categories tracked were down.
The caveat of course is that city has been in various states of lockdown for most of the year. With shuttered hotels and sparse shopping centers, thieves have presumably had fewer targets. “We’ve solved the property crime thing in absolutely the wrong way,” acknowledged 2020 Mayor Christian Patz in a recent candidate forum.
Violent Crime Down 23%
Violent crime saw decreases in 3 of the 7 categories tracked with robberies seeing the sharpest decline with a -45% drop. Fewer commuters carrying expensive electronic equipment are assumed to be one factor.
Aggravated Assaults were the the only category that saw any significant increases up 15% from last year. There were no reported homicides for the third consecutive year.
Property Crime Down 44%
Property Crime plummeted 44% in 2020. The 69% reduction in auto burglaries (down from 1593 in 2019 to 486 in 2020) accounted for a bulk of the decline.
On the down side, Commercial burglaries were up substantially. Many of them from the well publicized mass-looting of our city back on May 30. Residential burglaries and auto thefts were also up.
“Anecdotally, the majority of crime in Emeryville is property crime, thefts and burglaries,” noted recently hired Emeryville Police Chief Jeff Jennings. “When there is a dearth of business activity we have less people less cars in our small city so the opportunity for such crimes goes down.
Meanwhile, neighboring communities have seen spikes in violent crime. Homicides and gun violence in Oakland have skyrocketed amid the Pandemic and 2020 saw the highest homicides totals in 8 years.
Jennings cautioned that whenever things return to “normal,” we may also see the crime data return to pre-pandemic levels. “We will likely push reset on the crime numbers and see an increase.”
Download the Crime Analysis Case Studies on Emeryville.org.
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[…] Crime reports dropped precipitously at the start of the pandemic amid retail closures and lock-down orders. A -69% drop in auto burglaries and -45% drop in robberies were the primary drivers of a 44% drop from 2019 to 2020. […]
[…] for the declines are still presumed to be driven by the various lock-down and remote work policies. Crime plummeted in 2020 following the initial stay home order in March but has steadily nudged up since […]