2016 FBI Crime Report: Phoenixville's Property Crime Rate Drops

PHOENIXVILLE, PA — Property crimes, including theft, burglary, and motor vehicle theft, have declined significantly in Phoenixville in 2016, according to data released by the FBI on Monday. Violent crime, however, has seen a small increase.

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 Phoenixville — robberies, aggravated assault, rape, murder and manslaughter — increased to 40 overall total in 2016, according to the FBI. That is up from 32 reported in 2015, and is an slight drop from the 44 violent incidents reported in 2014.

Almost all of the violent incidents in Phoenixville over the last three years have been aggravated assaults. Since 2014, there have been three incidents of rape reported, and four robberies.

Thefts/larcenies and burglaries decreased significantly, continuing a positive trend over the last few years. Phoenixville has 203 incidents of property crime in 2016, down from 330 in 2015 and 384 in 2014.

All property crimes have decreased significantly over the last three years, with burglaries dropping from 31 to 26 to eight, and motor vehicle thefts dropping from 31 to 10 to eight.

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 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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