Total crimes were up in the City of Parkville for the year 2020, but there’s no need for residents to believe the city is unsafe in any way.
“Our city is growing,” says Kevin Chrisman, chief of the Parkville Police Department, and as with any municipality, with growth often comes an increase in criminal activity.
Total crimes in Parkville rose to 177 in 2020, up from 152 in 2019. That’s an increase of 16%.
Some of the increase can be traced to a lack of safety awareness by residents, Chrisman indicated. For instance, leaving garage doors open or car doors unlocked. Burglaries, which the police chief says in part due to garage doors left open, jumped to 19 in the year 2020 as compared to 12 the year before. Percentage wise, that’s an increase of 58% in the category of burglaries.
“We are always working to increase awareness, asking folks to help us out by closing their garage doors, locking their cars,” Chrisman said.
But of the 19 burglaries, only seven of them were from residences. The other 12 were from stores, offices, warehouses, etc., according to the department’s stat sheet. Most of the burglaries occurred in the hours between 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
There are seven different categories of crimes tracked by the police department: criminal homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft.
There were increases in nearly every category in 2020. The only drop was in homicides: Parkville had zero homicides in 2020 compared to one in 2019.
Assaults is another category that, on a percentage basis, saw a rather large jump from 12 in 2019 to 19 in 2020, an increase of 44%.
Three of the 19 assaults were with a firearm, one with a knife, two with an “other dangerous weapon,” seven with hands, fists, etc., and 13 were categorized as simple assaults (not aggravated).
Vehicle thefts rose from 11 in 2019 to 14 in 2020, according to Chrisman’s report. Ten of the stolen vehicles were autos, three trucks and buses, and one “other vehicle.”
There were 115 crimes classified as larcenies in 2020, up from 109 the year before.
Of the larcenies, 41 were shoplifting cases, 37 were from vehicles, four were of vehicle parts and accessories, six from a building, and 27 classified as “all others.”
Following is a list of the seven categories of crimes tracked in the department’s numbers by year. The first number is the 2020 total, followed by the numbers in 2019, 2018 and 2017.
Criminal homicide: 0, 1, 0, 0.
Rape: 1, 0, 3, 1.
Robbery: 2, 1, 2, 0.
Assault: 26, 18, 17, 26.
Burglary: 19, 12, 21, 12.
Larceny: 115, 109, 92, 97.
Motor vehicle theft: 14, 11, 10, 9.
Grand total: 177, 152, 145, 145.