PITTSBURGH — Reports of violent crime, aggravated assaults and burglaries dropped last year in Pittsburgh while police investigated more cases of property crimes, thefts and stolen cars, new data show.
Pittsburgh bucked several national trends in preliminary crime statistics the FBI released on Monday. According to numbers submitted by police agencies, violent crime increased nationwide by about 1.2 percent compared to 2011 and property crime dropped by nearly 1 percent.
In Pittsburgh, violent crime dropped by 5 percent from 2011 to 2012, fueled in part by a 9 percent drop in aggravated assaults, a small drop in murders (from 44 to 41) and a nearly steady number of robberies, according to numbers city police reported to the FBI.
Violent crime also dropped in Philadelphia.
Property crimes increased by about 6 percent in Pittsburgh, from 10,063 to 10,691, the FBI data show. That included a 10 percent increase in thefts and a 13 percent jump in motor vehicle thefts.
Police officials did not comment on the figures.
The FBI report did not include statistics for communities with fewer than 100,000 people, so the only other Western Pennsylvania city in the report is Erie.
Violent crime increased there by about 6 percent, and property crime dropped by about 6 percent, the statistics show.
This article was written by Channel 11’s news exchange partners at TribLIVE.