2016 FBI Crime Report: All Norristown Crime Continues To Drop

NORRISTOWN, PA — Both violent crime and property crime continued to drop significantly in Norristown in 2016, according to data released by the FBI on Monday.

The data does not include tabulations on crime in 2017, which included a spree of shooting deaths in the borough over the summer.

The information comes from the FBI’s annual report Crime in the United States. The publication is a statistical compilation of offense, arrest, and police employee data reported by law enforcement agencies voluntarily participating in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, according to the FBI.

Violent crimes in Norristown — robberies, aggravated assault, rape, murder and manslaughter — decreased to 148 overall total in 2016, according to the FBI. There were 227 cases in 2015, and 257 in 2014.

2016's numbers for the borough included two reports of rape, 83 robberies, and 61 aggravated assaults.

While robbery especially continues to be a problem in Norristown, the 81 cases in 2016 are down from 124 in 2015 and 143 in 2014.

Thefts/larcenies and burglaries decreased even more notably. There were 618 property crimes reported in 2016, down from 684 in 2015 and 882 in 2014.

Most property crimes categories decreased significantly over the last three years, with burglaries in particular dropping from 220 to 107 to 95.

Nationally, the FBI said the 2016 statistics showed an increase in the estimated number of violent crimes, with a 4.1 percent rise when compared with 2015 data. Nationally, property crimes dropped 1.3 percent.

The lowest total number of violent crimes in Montgomery County in 2016 was shared by Limerick, Upper Providence, and Narberth, which each had five incidents. Upper Providence has the largest population, and therefore had the lowest violent crime rate in the county by far. Upper Gwynedd, meanwhile, had one of the lowest property crime rates, with only 64 incidents in a population of nearly 16,000.

The 2016 statistics show the estimated rate of violent crime was 386.3 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants nationally, and the estimated rate of property crime was 2,450.7 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants. The violent crime rate rose 3.4 percent compared with the 2015 rate, and the property crime rate declined 2.0 percent.

The UCR Program report for 2016 included information from 16,782 agencies across the country, out of 18,481 city, county, university and college, state, tribal, and federal agencies eligible to participate, the FBI said.

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