Crime in Manteca numerically dropped for the second straight year in 2020.

Part One Crimes, or the 12 more serious crimes classified as felonies that the FBI uses to determine the relative safety of communities, dropped in nine categories with residential burglaries leading the way plunging 32.7 percent from 110 in 2019 to 74 last year.

There has not been a year in Manteca since at least 1998 that there have been less than 100 residential burglaries in Manteca. The peak year for residential burglaries was 2008 with 323.

The numbers are based on Manteca Police crime statistic released this week. The numbers reflect crimes police handled and those crimes reported to the department.

Vehicle thefts dropped 12.37 percent going from 283 in 2019 to 248 in 2020. It is a far cry from 2005 when thieves were stealing a vehicle in Manteca every 10.9 hours for a record 798 vehicles in one year. That nose bleed number of vehicle thefts included one big rig left idling in front of a Manteca home and a Manteca Police patrol unit.

 Overall felonies dropped from 1,998 to 1,503 for a 24.77 percent drop. Rape and unlawful intercourse was one of three categories to spike. Cases jumped 28.74 percent going from 19 to 31. Arsons were up 27.78 percent going from 18 to 23 while the catch-all category of other burglaries went from 23 to 29 for a 26.09 percent increase.

There were three homicides in 2020, the same number as in 2019.

All burglaries plunged 43.98 percent going from 714 in 2019 to 400 in 2020.

You are most likely to be the victim of an auto burglary in Manteca than any other burglary. Even so auto burglaries were down 53.59 percent going from 474 in 2019 to 220 last year.

Law enforcement officials across the nation credit some of the drop in crime to pandemic lockdowns. With more people working from home, residential neighborhoods are not easy targets. It underscores the value of Neighborhood Watch groups that work in partnership with police department reporting suspicious activity.

 The reason why the crime rate per 1,000 is used by agencies ranging from the FBI to local police departments is simple — raw numbers for crime don’t provide the perspective of an increase in the number of potential victims.

The crime per 1,000 takes into account population growth to put numeric increases or decreases into perspective for an apple to apple comparison in terms of overall burglaries and felonies. It is why it is the matrix the FBI uses to determine crime rates and the relative safety of communities.

Manteca in 2020 had a crime rate of 17.2 crimes per 1,000 based on 1,503 felonies and a population of 87,000.

That compares to 23.2 crimes per 1,000 in 2019 based on 1,998 felonies and 84,800 residents.

Once you factor in population, crime has been on a steady downward trend since 2015 when it was 32.1 crimes per 1,000.

Misdemeanors in 2020 dropped 14.35 percent falling to 2,710 from 3,164 in 2019. That includes misdemeanor thefts dropping 9.61 percent going from 812 in 2019 to 734 in 2020.

Narcotic offenses dropped 49.85 percent going from 339 to 170, alcohol offenses dropped 16.3 percent going from 257 to 214, domestic violence dropped 14.33 percent going from 335 to 287, and fraud/forgery fell 22.83 percent going from 327 to 253.
In what is a first for at least the last 25 years if not longer, service requests dropped. They were down 13.76 percent going from 52,275 to 44,220. Non-criminal reports also dropped. They fell 30.83 percent going from 2,267 to 1,568.

Manteca officers served 56.89 percent less warrants in 2020. There were 1,531 served compared to 660 in 2019.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com