Violent and property crime rates rise through first three months of 2023, crime commission says
Crime rates are up "across the board" in Memphis and Shelby County through the first three months of 2023, early data from the Memphis Shelby County Crime Commission indicates.
The crime commission's first quarter crime statistics, which are based on early numbers from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's Tennessee Incident Based Reporting System (TIBRS), show a 7% increase in the city's major violent crime rate and a 43.8% increase in its major property crime rate compared to the first three months of 2022.
"The disturbing increases in reported crime are driven mainly by three categories — crimes committed with guns, vehicle thefts, and vehicle break-ins," Memphis Shelby County Crime Commission President Bill Gibbons said in a statement attached to the data release. "Over 70 percent of reported violent incidents involve guns [so far in 2023]. That compares to only about 40 percent in 2011."
The number of violent incidents that were reported and involved guns has slowly risen in recent years, according to the crime commission data. In 2021, that number rose to 71.3% and it rose to 72.3% in 2022 through the first quarter of the year. So far this year, 72.8% of violent crimes reported involved a firearm.
The major violent crime rate through the first quarter of the year dipped from 2021 to 2022 and is about 4.2% higher this year than in 2021. It hit a low point in 2011, sitting at 362.5 crimes per 100,000 residents. In 2023, that crime rate rebounded to 582.1 crimes per 100,000 residents.
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The rates of the four offenses categorized in major violent crime — murders, rapes, aggravated assaults, and robberies — all rose in the first quarter of the year.
The murder rate rose 34.4% from 2022 to 2023
The rape rate rose 41.3% from 2022 to 2023
The aggravated assault rate rose 5.9% from 2022 to 2023
The robbery rate rose 4.8% from 2022 to 2023
TIBRS data shows 104 murders so far in 2023, but Gibbons said that number is based on initial reports from the Memphis Police Department. Since then, he said, 23 homicides were "reclassified by MPD as either negligent homicides or justifiable homicides," which left Memphis with 81 murders through March. The crime commission's release cited a 7.7% increase in the major violent crime rate, however, that number is a 7% increase when the corrected murder numbers are factored in.
Major property crime plummeted between 2006 and 2016 but steadily rose from then until 2022. Between 2022 and 2023, property crime rates jumped from 1421.1 crimes per 100,000 people to 2043.3 for the first quarter.
Rates for the three offenses in major property crime — burglaries, thefts, and motor vehicle thefts — also all increased in the first quarter, with motor vehicle thefts increasing by over 155%.
The burglary rate rose by 18.1% from 2022 to 2023
The theft rate rose by 21.3% from 2022 to 2023
The motor vehicle theft rate rose by 155.2% from 2022 to 2023
Also seeing increases through the first year were simple assaults and domestic violence incidents, which rose by 15.7% and 8.8% respectively.
Two areas that dropped in the first three months were drug and weapons charges, which respectively dropped 39.2% and 27% from 2022 to 2023 according to the data. The crime commission categorized these as categories that made up "proactive policing," which the commission concluded had declined this year.
Gibbons, in the release, said "data-driven deployment of law enforcement resources, focused deterrence efforts that target known serious repeat adult and juvenile offenders, violence intervention efforts to head off retaliatory acts and a sentencing structure that holds offenders accountable and also offers rehabilitative opportunities" were "proven best practices that can make a fairly significant dent in crime."
"We need a sense of urgency to scale up and sustain proven best practices," he added.
Though the data in the release did not break down offenses by age, Gibbons and Memphis Shelby County Crime Commission Board of Directors Chair Ben Adams both cited juvenile crime as a problem, with Gibbons saying stolen vehicles and thefts from vehicles "appear to be driven by juveniles, sometimes under the direction of adults."
"There is growing concern over the level of brazenness of much of our juvenile crime," Adams said in the release. "Whether it be changes in juvenile court's detention policy, scaling up a system of restorative justice, more intensive community supervision, enforcement of our curfew ordinance, a system of blended sentencing to extend the age jurisdiction of our juvenile system, more secure beds in facilities for serious juvenile offenders, or all of that, the public wants action."
Lucas Finton is a criminal justice reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com and followed on Twitter @LucasFinton.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Crime is up 'across the board' according to crime commission data
