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2016 crime statistics: worse than we’re being told

The Attorney General’s Office released its 2016 Crime Statistics report this week, coupled with a press release celebrating the decrease in “major crimes.” When I saw the news reports and the Attorney General’s press release, I poked through the data myself. It turns out that major crime reports are down since last year, but major crime arrests are up.

Overall, the data points to a disturbing trend that North Dakota is becoming more violent and drug-ridden. When it comes to looking at adult arrests, the numbers are staggering. Crimes against people are up 20% in the last five years. Assaults are up 18% in 5 years. Crimes against property are up 33% in 5 years. Burglaries are up 36% in five years and Robberies have doubled in one year. The most outrageous increase is in drug-related offenses. In 5 years, there’s been a 74% increase in drug possession arrests, and a 39% increase in drug paraphernalia-related arrests. And these are not small numbers, either. In 2016, the two categories combined for just under 6,500 arrests, right around 25% of all adult arrests. The five charges I’ve named here accounted for one-third of all adult arrests last year.

The only good news seems to be that DUI’s and shoplifting are down. However, without shoplifting, property crime is still up and the difference is exceeded by the increase in assault charges. Drug crimes are up 9% off of last year’s record high – including a 19% increase in heroin and meth possession. And if multiple law enforcement officers are reporting to all of these thefts, assaults, and drug arrests, it’s no wonder that they don’t have time to pull people over for DUI’s.

The news goes from bad to worse: the numbers don’t really add up. Look at the arrests reported in the North Central Judicial District – there were a reported 385 combined drug-related arrests for the Sheriff’s Departments of Ward, Renville, and Mountrail Counties, and the Police Departments from Minot, Surrey, Stanley, Burlington, Berthold, and Kenmare. But a quick search on the North Dakota Supreme Court website shows at least 483 separate felony cases had drug charges in them for these three counties. It doesn’t even include the municipal courts in Minot, Surrey, Berthold, Burlington, and Stanley, and it doesn’t include those cases that are solely misdemeanor cases.

This discrepancy arises because law enforcement officers have the discretion to classify arrests, but they can only pick one category. For instance, a person arrested for a felony DUI with a marijuana pipe in his car will probably be considered a DUI arrest, rather than a drug arrest, limiting law enforcement’s ability to cohesively describe an incident. The Attorney General’s Report also doesn’t take case outcomes into account, like when a DUI is amended to a Reckless Driving, or when a person is acquitted. It’s solely based on the officer’s decision to arrest.

We can dispute if the offenses were mischaracterized, and if the Attorney General has the right methodology. The indisputable facts are that the Attorney General says major crimes are down. But arrests are up, meaning the court case load is up, and most serious crimes have skyrocketed in the last five years. The Report says that situation is pretty bad, but it’s actually worse than that.

We look to our leaders to explain what more can be done to move us forward, and why those things haven’t been done already. But one thing is clear – we have to take off the blinders and make way for innovative and objective approaches. Our current efforts clearly aren’t working, and they haven’t been working for some time.

Schultz is a criminal defense and debt collection attorney in Minot.

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