Manteca crime through the first 10 months of 2017 — except for four categories — is down significantly from the same period last year.
Total felonies were at 1,641. That’s down 6.17 percent from last year. Overall burglaries dropped from 770 in the first 10 months of 2016 to 676 in the same period this year for a decrease of 12.21 percent.
Overall misdemeanors through October numbered 2,509 for a 13.16 percent drop.
The downward trend that includes auto burglaries dropping 12.45 percent, commercial burglaries down 13.68 percent, vehicle theft down 17.31 percent, grand theft down 12.1 percent, rape down 51.61 percent and other burglaries down 55.26 percent.
Other Part One Crimes that are felonies the FBI uses to judge the relative safety of communities across the country were up through October of this year. Residential burglaries saw a slight uptick of 0.67 percent, arson was up 18.18 percent, aggravated assault was up 17.5 percent and there were four murders compared to one murder during the first 10 months of 2016.
The downward trend comes after serious crime was essentially flat in 2016.
Serious crime per 1,000 — the yardstick the FBI uses to provide apple to apple crime comparison on an annual basis — was down ever so slightly in Manteca last year.
Part One crime offenses — 12 felonies that run the gamut from murder and assault to burglary and robbery — was at 2,032 in raw numbers for 2016 compared to 2,004 in 2015. Given that Manteca grew by 1,000 residents last year the serious crime per 1,000 was at 36.909 per 1,000 in 2016 down ever so slightly from 36.926 per 1,000 in 2015.
In essence serious crime per 1,000 did not change.
Serious crime per 1,000 residents has been on a downward path since 2005 when the rate was 40.72 Part 1 crimes per 1,000 residents. Manteca had 61,809 residents in 2005 compared to 75,000 in 2016.
Half of the Part One categories involving felonies were up last year and half were down.
All burglaries were up in raw numbers for the second straight year climbing 8.63 percent after jumping 21.58 percent in 2015. The overall burglaries — auto, residential, commercial, and others — came to a combined 869 in 2016 and 800 in 2015. That compares to 1,146 in 2007 the farthest back the Bulletin has tracked every category of crime reported by the Manteca Police Department.
Two of the four felony categories that have increased in the first 10 months of this year — murder and aggravated assault — tend to be dominated by gang-related activities.
 
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com