Crime Down, Despite the Economy

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Story Published: Jan 1, 2010 at 6:13 PM PDT

By Stacy Lilienthal

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YAKIMA --- You would expect crime to be up in this economy. But that's not the case. We're actually bucking a national crime trend... with a few exceptions.

We caught up with Melissa Munoz minutes after someone broke into her house Wednesday night. "Our doors were locked and they still got in," she said.

"The subjects had a lot of the victims stuff in the bag already, they used one of the victims big overnight bags," Yakima Police Department Sergeant, Shelley Upton explained.

Munoz happened to be nearby at her parent’s house and they went to see why her dog was barking. One guy saw them and took off running and her father started fighting with the second.

"He grabbed him and took him down," Munoz smiled. Her dad held one juvenile down until cops arrived.

Burglaries are one of the few crimes still up in Yakima. It grew by 20% as of August. To- date, Yakima has also had two more murders than last year. But since our reports in May, overall crime has continued to go down. It was 2% down through May, and dropped further to 5 1/2 % down through August. Motor vehicle theft was down about 11%. General theft, like shoplifting or car prowls, is down 20%.

"These are areas of crime you would think people would commit if they were short on money or out of a job," Yakima Police Department Captain, Greg Copeland reasoned.

It's a rare trend. An FBI report says crime rates nationwide haven't been this low since the 1960s.

The report said it's hard to explain why that is, but points to better car security systems and more eyes watching the neighborhoods thanks to high unemployment. The Yakima Police Department has an additional theory on auto theft numbers.

"We have the prolific auto thieves, or at least some of them in jail at this time," Copeland said.

But because burglaries are still on a rise, like the one at Munoz's house, police insist it's never been a better time to open you eye and be ready to call 9-1-1 when you see something that doesn't look right.

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