Minneapolis Index Crime Rate Falls 18 Percent from April 2008

The Minneapolis Police Department's official Uniform Crime Report data for April 2009 finds crime in Minnesota's largest city down 18 percent from one year ago.

The 18 percent 12-month drop is the largest in the city dating back more than two years to February 2007, when crime was down 23.9 percent from 12 months prior.

Crime rates generally rise in Minneapolis coming out of the winter into the spring and mid-summer, and April's crime rate did increase 0.3 points from March 2009 - from 4.0 to 4.3 index crimes per 1,000 residents. (Index crimes are comprised of four violent crimes (homicide, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery) and four property crimes (burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson)).

However, the crime rate of 4.3 incidents per 1,000 residents in April 2009 is the lowest April crime rate in Minneapolis this decade. After peaking at a rate of 6.0 incidents per 1,000 residents in April 2006, the crime rate has fallen in each of the subsequent three years - to a rate of 5.7 in April 2007, 5.2 in April 2008, and 4.3 in April 2009. This marks a drop of more than 650 index crimes in the city in April 2009 compared to April 2006.

This decade-long April crime rate low has taken place in the face of the worst unemployment trend the city has endured in years. April's 6.9 percent non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is tied for the third-highest in Minneapolis this decade.

Still, index crimes have fallen despite the rising unemployment rate. For example, while the unemployment rate in April 2009 is 156 percent higher than it was in April 2000 (2.7 percent), the crime rate is 28.3 percent lower (at a rate of 4.3 incidents per 1,000 residents versus 6.0).

And though the April 2009 unemployment rate is 73 percent higher in Minneapolis from one year ago (4.0 percent), index crimes have dropped 18 percent.

Minneapolis April Crime Rate vs. Unemployment Rate, 2000-2009

Period	Index crimes	Crime rate	Unemployment rate
April 2000	2,317	6.0	2.7
April 2001	2,128	5.5	3.5
April 2002	1,993	5.1	5.1
April 2003	2,229	5.7	4.7
April 2004	1,720	4.4	4.6
April 2005	2,064	5.3	3.9
April 2006	2,324	6.0	3.6
April 2007	2,229	5.7	3.9
April 2008	2,033	5.2	4.0
April 2009	1,667	4.3	6.9

Note: Index crime data for homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson from the Minneapolis Police Department. Crime rate per 1,000 residents compiled by Smart Politics from an average city population base of 388,020. Non-seasonally adjusted unemployment data from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

Follow Smart Politics on Twitter.