Local police refute report that says Bannock County has highest crime rate in Idaho

The Idaho State Police 2023 crime report was recently released and it says Bannock County has the highest crime rate of all 44 counties in the state.

But the top law enforcement officers in the county say that those stats can be interpreted differently, and that crime in the region isn’t as bad as the report may suggest.

The crime report, released on July 1, is a compilation of data submitted by Idaho’s law enforcement agencies as part of the Uniform Crime Reporting program, which was conceived in 1929 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police to meet the need for reliable uniform crime statistics for the nation.

The report focuses mostly on what the FBI’s incident reporting method classifies as “Group A” crimes, which contain 52 offenses, most of which are serious — including violent crimes against persons such as murder, assault or sex offenses; crimes against property such as arson, burglary and thefts; and crimes against society such as animal cruelty, illegal narcotics and pornography offenses.

While the overall rate for Group A crimes fell statewide by 4.67 percent in 2023, it increased by 4.43 percent in Bannock County, according to the report. Chubbuck had the highest crime rate of all police departments in the state, Pocatello had the sixth highest and the Bannock County Sheriff’s Office came in at 20th out of 44 counties, the report says.

BANNOCK COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

Despite Bannock County having the highest crime rate of all Idaho counties, the Bannock County Sheriff’s Office was about middle of the pack. In fact, the crime rate for the sheriff’s office dropped by about 17 percent compared to last year.

The Bannock County Sheriff’s Office reported increases in crime 2019 through 2022, with 2022 increasing by a whopping 64.73 percent. The sheriff’s office reported its first decrease in crime over the past five years in 2023. Additionally, Bannock County sheriff’s deputies cleared over 50 percent of its cases last year.

Bannock County Sheriff Tony Manu said he believes it would be “interesting to find out how much of the crime in this area was done by permanent residents,” particularly citing what he described as a tenfold increase in the population of Lava Hot Springs every summer that he says leads to increased crime in the county.

Additionally, Manu pointed to two of the highest crimes that were committed in Bannock County, drug violations and theft-related crimes and the geographical location of the county, with both Interstate 15 and Interstate 86 being located in the region, as major drivers of the increased crime stats.

“A lot of what we see in Bannock County is the influx of drugs, particularly fentanyl,” he said. “We have issues at the border, not to get political about it, but all 44 sheriffs in the state have talked about how serious this issue is. I believe 100 percent that there is a connection between thefts and drug-related offenses. Our region’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas task force is one of the busiest in the state.”

CHUBBUCK POLICE DEPARTMENT

After reporting a decrease in Group A crimes in 2019, 2021 and 2022 of more than 11 percent each year, the Chubbuck Police department reported a 10 percent increase in 2023. Chubbuck cleared about 35 percent of its cases in 2023.

This contributed to Chubbuck having the highest crime rate per capita of any police department in the state with over 8,665 crimes per 100,000 population. Chubbuck Police Chief Nick Sasser says the stats in this report must be “taken with a grain of salt.”

“Over the last five years we always rank pretty high for crime rates,” Sasser said. “In 2019 we were second, in 2020 we were first, in 2021 we were second, in 2022 we were fourth and in 2023 we were first again. I think a lot of that has to do with our geography.”

He continued, “We’re so close to another bigger city with a bigger population. We’re a small agency out in the middle of nowhere, but we’re butted up to a city, and all those people come to the city of Chubbuck to shop. Our biggest jump was in our theft areas and our fraud. You have to take into account we’re not just dealing with Chubbuck’s population, we have a lot of bleed over from Pocatello that goes both ways.”

Sasser also pointed to some of the crime stats that were lower that he believes paints Chubbuck as a safe place to live.

“If you look at our violent crime, we’ve only had one murder within the last five years,” Sasser said. “Our annual murder rate is 0.2. And if you look at rape for instance, our average over a five-year period is 3.2. Robbery is 3.8 instances per year and aggravated assaults are around 36, so from a violent crime standpoint we are really safe for sure.”

POCATELLO POLICE DEPARTMENT

The crime rate in Pocatello was 5,874 crimes per 100,000 people in 2023, making it the police department with the sixth highest crime rate in the state. Pocatello officers cleared over 50 percent of their cases. The most committed crimes Pocatello police handled in 2023 included simple assaults, theft offenses, drug violations and frauds. Of the 20 combined rape and sodomy cases, Pocatello police cleared just five of those cases.

Pocatello reported decreases in Group A crime in 2019, 2020, and 2022, of which 2022 saw a 15.32 percent drop. Pocatello saw a 4.81 percent increase in crime for 2023.

Echoing a similar sentiment to Manu, Schei said it would be worth knowing how many of the reported crimes involved the Gate City’s permanent population.

“I think the census numbers need to get updated,” Schei said. “When you look at the crimes against people that we have, those numbers remain flat, the crimes against property went down and the crimes against society went up. Drug crimes are the primary driver of our increased crime but that’s because we’re being proactive and making arrests on people that are dealing drugs. Any time you have a high amount of drug offenses you will also see weapons offenses.”

STATEWIDE FINDINGS

In addition to an overall decrease in crime statewide, violent crime decreased by 2.42 percent, and aggravated assault crimes, which account for about 75 percent of all violent crime, decreased by 1.73 percent.

Idaho also saw a 3.18 percent decrease in crimes against persons. Simple assaults, which comprise about 60 percent of crimes against persons, decreased by 1.37 percent.

Crimes against society increased by 1.83 percent statewide, with drug or narcotic violations, which make up nearly 50 percent of crimes against society, increasing by 2.87 percent.

Property crime decreased by 11.14 percent from 2022. Larceny or theft crimes, which account for about 41 percent of all crimes against property decreased 12 percent.

The report says that in 2023, no law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty. The Gem State in 2024 has already seen one officer killed in the line of duty. Tobin Bolter, 27, was fatally shot during a traffic stop on April 21 in Boise. Bolter stopped a gray Chevy Suburban where a 65-year-old male suspect with a misdemeanor warrant was driving when the incident occurred.

A total of 504 officers were assaulted in 2023, which represents an increase of 3.28 percent from 2022.

Hate crimes were on the rise in Idaho, with a relatively significant 12 percent increase from 2022.

CRIME CLOCK

According to the report, a murder happened every 8.5 days in Idaho. A rape happened every 14.7 hours and nonconsesual sex offenses excluding rapes occurred every 7 hours. An aggravated assault occurred every 2.5 hours, drug or narcotics crimes occurred every 37 minutes, burglary or breaking and entering occurred every 3.2 hours.

A full version of the 2023 crime report can be accessed by visiting shorturl.at/FzEYb .