Crime in all categories except larceny was down in Manteca last year despite the city adding more than 2,500 residents.

The highest drop was in burglary.

Burglary plunged 45 percent from 478 cases in 2023 to 263 in 2024.

Overall, violent felonies — homicide, aggravated assault, robbery and rape — went from 300 in 2023 to 269 last year.

It represents a 10.3 percent drop in violent crimes while the city’s population increased 3.2 percent.

The drop in violent crimes from 2023 to 2024 as reported by the Manteca Police Department include:

*homicides down from 5 to 1.

*rapes down 52 to 45.

*robberies down 69 to 62.

*aggravated assault down 174 to 161.

Property crimes fell 18.1 percent between 2023 and last year.

Larceny was the only property crime category to increase going up slightly from 767 to 775.

The drop in property crimes from 2023 to 2024 include:

*burglary down 478 to 263.

*auto theft down 317 to 235.

*arson down 15 to 11.

Vehicle thefts are symbolic of an almost continuous drop in more serious crimes in per capita crime rates as well as actual raw numbers during the past 20 years.

Vehicle thefts reached a record high of 798 in 2005 in Manteca.

Among the more notable thefts in 2005 included:

*A semi- truck cab left idling in front of a Manteca home that led Manteca Police and the CHP to the Altamont Pass area where the theft left the freeway, ditched the truck, and escaped arrest.

*A marked Manteca patrol car at a Fremont Street crime scene where a cuffed suspect in the back seat somehow got into the front seat and was able to drive about a block before being stopped.

The 2005 saw 14 vehicle thefts per 1,000 residents.

By 2024, the vehicle theft rate had dropped to 2.5 per 1,000 residents.

That represents more than a 70 percent per capita drop in auto theft between 2005 when the city had 54,000 residents and 2023 when it had 91,000 residents.

Today, Manteca is closing in on 94,000 residents.

Auto thefts had been numerically dropping steadily in Manteca almost every year until 2022.

That’s when Kia and Hyundai owners faced a high risk of their vehicles being stolen due to a TikTok tutorial video.

Kias and Hyundais displaced Hondas Accords as the No. 1 theft vehicles in Manteca in 2022.

Manteca Police responded by distributing 120 steering wheel locks at no cost.

At a Saturday distribution in July 2023, more than 100 of them were given away in the first hour as people started waiting in the lobby a half hour before the two-hour window of distribution started.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dqyatt@mantecabulletin.com