Although the overall crime rate in Idaho decreased, Latah County saw an increase from 2020 to 2021.

The new report from the State Police Uniform Crime Reporting Program released the statewide statistics from 2021 this past week. County rates are based on a population of 100,000 and statewide rates are calculated on an adjusted population base of 1,798,888.

The statistics track crimes that occur in Group A offenses, which includes crimes against persons, crimes against property and crimes against society. Arrest data represents the number of people arrested, not those charged with a crime.

Latah County’s crime rate is ranked 26th in the state. In the county, the number of offenses increased by 11.98% to 1,234 and in 2020 there were 1,102. Of those cases, 390 were larceny or theft, making them the highest number of offenses.

Statewide statistics were less concrete with some crimes against persons and crimes against property declining, but crimes against society on the rise. Crimes against persons include murder, rape and simple assault; crimes against property include robbery, larceny and theft; and crimes against society include drugs/narcotic violations and pornography/obscene material. Crimes against persons are counted by each victim within an incident and crimes against property and society are counted by each distinct incident.

Overall, crimes against persons decreased slightly by 0.93%, as incidents reported in 2021 were 17,788 compared to 17,955 in 2020. The violent crime rate in Idaho decreased by 3.35%. The murder rate remained the same with 39 cases in 2021 and 2020. Crimes against property also decreased by 11.07%.

Also declining were hate crimes by 12.96% with 47 reported incidents, down from 54 in 2020. Of those hate crimes, 34.04% were motivated by race, 29.79% by sexual orientation, 29.79% by ethnicity and 6.38% by religion.

Assaults against Idaho law enforcement officers were down 10.30% and most of those assaults occurred when officers were responding to a disturbance call. Lewiston Police Department had 13 officer assaults, Moscow Police Department had five officer assaults, and Nez Perce County Sheriff had one. During 2021, there were no Idaho law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.

However, other crimes saw a rise in Idaho. The number of rapes increased 11.83% to 728 reported cases. Crimes against society were up 7.31% to 27,083 incidents, with 49.31% being drug or narcotic offenses. Suspected drugs and alcohol use during another group A crime also increased by 6.69%.

The crime rate per 100,000 population for the state of Idaho is 293.7, which is the ninth lowest in the country. Washington ranks 16th lowest at 293.7. The District of Columbia is the highest at 999.8 and Maine is the lowest at 108.6.

More details one crime rates statewide and by county can be found at nibrs.isp.idaho.gov/CrimeInIdaho.

Brewster may be contacted at kbrewster@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2297.