Data Shows Battle Creek Crime Rate Down 14 Percent From Last Year

Data shows that Battle Creek’s crime rate is continuing a trend of decline this year.

The Battle Creek City Commission is meeting Tuesday night, and one of the first items on the agenda is a staff report by Battle Creek Police Department Chief Jim Blocker, who will hold a presentation on year-to-date trends of crime in the city. The information presented shows that for the first half of 2019, compared to the first half of 2018, it’s estimated that crime is down 14 percent.

With shootings, however, we have already tied the number of murders at 3 so far in 2019 compared to 3 all of last year. At this point, 7 people total have been shot in Battle Creek, while 22 were shot in 2018; the last category of shootings in this data is “other”, and 2018 saw 37 “other” shootings, while 2019 so far has seen 30.

In addition to the raw data, Chief Blocker will present a pair of “heat maps” showing where the highest concentration of crime took place in the city year-to-date. In both property crime and violent crime, there is a bright red circle at the Arbors of Battle Creek apartment complex south of Beckley; there are also hot spots in a few places on Capital Ave. NE north of the Battle Creek Police Department.

Besides crime statistics, the Chief will discuss what the BCPD is doing to prevent violence in the community, with both “violence interruption” and the crisis intervention program.