FBI Media Release
Special Agent in Charge Manuel E. Mora
660 Mesa Hills Drive    El Paso, TX 79912 
To: All print and broadcast media
Contact:  Special Agent Andrea Simmons, 915.832.5373

Violent crime, property crime stats down in El Paso

Today the FBI published the Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report (UCR) statistics for January through June 2007. El Paso is in line with the national trend of a decrease in violent crime and property crime.

According to the report, the Nation experienced a 1.8 percent decrease in violent crime and a 2.6 percent decrease in property crime during the first six months of 2007 compared to the same period in 2006.

In El Paso, overall violent crime, which includes murder, robbery, rape and aggravated assault, was down 3.31 percent compared to the first six months of 2006, while forcible rape was up slightly. Property crimes, which includes burglary, larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft, were also down 1.58 percent in El Paso overall while burglary and motor vehicle theft were up 3.8 percent and 4.5 percent respectively. Arson offenses were down considerably from the first six months of 2006 at 31.6 percent.

The report is based on information from law enforcement agencies that contributed three to six comparable months of data to the FBI during January through June of both 2006 and 2007. A total of 11,673 law enforcement agencies met the criteria to be included in the current report. The UCR numbers are provided voluntarily by police and sheriff’s departments across the nation. The FBI collects and publishes this data annually.

The complete Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report is available exclusively at www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm.