Crime Levels Drop Considerably in St. Michael

How would you like to live in the safest city in Wright County? If you live in St. Michael, you might be in luck: they had the lowest crime rate per capita out of the 13 cities the police force oversees in Wright County (only three of 16 cities throughout the county provide their own police force).

Crime was down across the board in St. Michael last year, city administrator Bob Derus reported at Tuesday evening’s city council meeting, and by nearly every measure 2010 was the lowest year for crimes and police services out of any in the last five.

The 2010  list of Type 1 crimes, which are more serious relative to Type 2 crimes, totaled 142 different incidents. 121 of these were for theft/larceny and seven were for aggravated assault; any other categories had five or fewer incidents. The number of crimes, both for type 1 and 2, were 45 percent lower than two years ago and 15 percent lower than last year’s levels. Countywide, crime is down 14 percent from 2009, Captain Dan Anselment said.

Most types of service calls declined last year as well, including far fewer security alarm calls, fewer animal complaints and fewer juvenile complaints logging the largest decreases from last year. The largest service call increases came from medical/deceased calls, which spiked to 425 calls last year, well over the previous three years, which averaged about 330 such calls. Fire reports and harassment reports were also up from last year.

 St. Michael also saw better behavior behind the wheel within its city limits last year. There were 213 total traffic calls in 2010, which was a slight increase from last year but still 14 percent lower than two years ago. Motor vehicle crashes in the city also hit their lowest mark in the past five years, with 157 accidents reported. Again 2008 led with the highest number in recent years, at 245. Anselment speculated that part of this good news is due to the fact that St. Michael didn’t have the large construction projects going on in 2010 than in previous years, which makes the roads more unpredictable for drivers.

Of course, even good news like this has a bit of a downside. Though Derus was pleased to see such low levels of crime across the board in St. Michael, the only problem is that city leaders don’t have a clear picture of what caused such large declines to help replicate these good numbers for 2011 and beyond.

Anselment said his best guess for the low levels of crime is that it related to the economic slowdown. Though it seems to make sense that a down economy would drive more people into crimes like theft and forgery, what actually happened was a lowering of crime levels. Anselment thought this was likely due to the fact that many people have less money to be out and about-making crimes such as speeding and D.U.I decrease.

 “We’ve got a lot of technology that we’re using and a lot of experienced officers, but also we’ve got people staying home during this economic downturn,” Anselment said. “The bars and establishments that sell food and liquor together are quieter than they have been for many, many years. I don’t think people have that disposable income anymore to go out.”

 For Derus, he expected crime to increase in times where people are strapped for cash or frustrated with their economic situation.

 “To me, it’s counter-intuitive that it goes down in a slowdown, he said. “You’d think that people would be low on money so they would be bouncing check and stealing things, and things like that. Actually, the stats have indicated that’s not the case.”

Whatever the reasoning behind the drop, city and police leaders are hoping the downward trend continues. Though the numbers on St. Michael’s first quarter in 2011 aren’t in quite yet, Anselment said that so far things do look a bit busier around the county than 2010. These numbers should be released in the next couple weeks. However, he did speculate that 2011’s motor vehicle statistics might look even better for next year as gas prices climb higher and local residents begin using their vehicles more and more judiciously.

 “People are going to stick to essential trips going to and from, so you’re going to see less traffic on the roadways and that will minimize some of your crashes out there,” he said. “Overall, I think this is a pretty good report for the people of St. Michael.”