FBI Report: Crime Drops

On Sept. 19, the FBI released Crime in the U.S., a report of violent and property crime nationwide in 2010.

The FBI said violent crimes dropped in the U.S. in 2010 for the fourth consecutive year and property crimes decreased for the eighth straight year.

This trend is mirrored somewhat locally with Bensalem Township seeing a slight uptick in violent crimes and a larger drop in property crime for an overall drop in total crime. The total number of reported crimes in Bensalem last year was 2,257 compared to 2,363 in 2009.

In 2010, there were 110 violent crimes (murder, 0; rape, 6; robbery, 67; and aggravated assault, 37) in Bensalem compared to 105 (murder, 0; rape, 6; robbery, 67; and aggravated assault, 32) in 2009. Property crimes, however, decreased from 2,258 (burglary, 340; theft, 1,790; vehicle theft, 128; and arson, 35) in 2009 to 2,147 (burglary, 305; theft, 1,718; vehicle theft, 124; and arson, 47) in 2010.

“Over the last five years, we've had a steady decrease in what we call Part 1 crimes, which are our major crimes,” . “We continue to show a decrease every year in those crimes.”

Harran added that in the first six months of 2011 the township saw the following decreases as compared to 2010:

• Robbery, 13 percent
• Assault, 6 percent
• Burglary, 22 percent
• Theft, 2 percent
• Vehicle thefts, 11 percent

Click here to read more about this FBI crime report.