After ending 2020 with a 16 percent reduction in Part 1 crimes compared to the previous year, things are trending the wrong way in Ripon in 2021.

According to the Ripon Police Department, crime doubled in January of 2021 compared to the same month the previous year – increasing from 20 Part 1 crimes to 40 last month.

Part 1 crimes, as outlined in the FBI’s uniform crime reporting statistics, are classified as criminal homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny (simple theft), motor vehicle theft, and arson.

In January of this year Ripon had no murders, rapes, or arson cases, but saw a measurable uptick in simple assaults – 12 more than in the month the previous year – and burglary, of which there were 4 more than the previous January. There were three more larcenies last month than there were in January of 2020 as well – larceny is also known as theft – and there was one more stolen vehicle than was reported in January of 2020.

Like most valley communities, Ripon saw “quality of life” crimes like burglary, larceny, and vehicle theft drop significantly in 2020 as the pandemic set in and more people started spending time at home, but many of those restrictions were lifted in January after months of a modified shelter-in-place order intended to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

There were 59 less larcenies in 2020 than there was the previous year, and simple assaults were down by a total of 9. Rapes, burglaries, and robberies were also not reported with the same frequency in 2020 than they were in 2019.

There was a total of 321 Part 1 crimes in Ripon in 2020 compared to 382 in 2019. If January’s totals were to be repeated in every month of this year, it would result in the highest total number of Part 1 crimes in more than a decade – beating out the 467 that were reported in 2009 during the housing crisis that severely impacted the Northern San Joaquin Valley.

For additional information about Ripon’s crime statistics, or to view the crime maps that the agency publishes for the public, visit the Ripon Police Department’s website at www.riponpd.org.

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.