Major violent, property crime down over 17% so far this year, Memphis police data shows

Crime in Memphis has continued its downward trajectory compared to last year's near-record high, Memphis Police Department data presented to the Memphis City Council Tuesday morning indicated.

The data, which compared crime from the first six months of this year to the same time frame last year, showed a 17.5% decrease in major violent and property crimes, which MPD defines as "part 1 crimes."

Violent crime in 2024, compared to last year, is down nearly 8%. Homicides, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults reported to MPD are all lower than the first half of 2023. There were 20 fewer homicides reported to MPD, along with 13 fewer rapes, 22 fewer aggravated assaults and 386 fewer robberies.

Car thefts have also seen a steep decline in reported incidents, according to the data, with a nearly 32% decrease from this time last year. Theft from motor vehicle incidents have decreased by 21%.

Also seeing a change from past years is the car brand that is most stolen so far this year. The most commonly reported brand of stolen vehicle so far this year is Nissan, with 844 Nissan cars stolen. Hyundai and Kia, two brands that have faced the most scrutiny for how commonly they were stolen , had 626 and 569 respectively reported thefts this year.

Theft from cargo trailers, however, has seen a slight increase compared to last year, with 444 incidents through the first six months of the year compared to 430 incidents reported during the same time last year.

MPD also reported a slight decrease in retail crimes, with business burglaries, felony shoplifting and misdemeanor shoplifting seeing drops. Burglaries dropped nearly 38%, with smaller decreases in shoplifting categories. There have been eight fewer felony shoplifting incidents reported and 67 fewer misdemeanor shoplifting incidents.

Though city council members expressed happiness over the decrease, both Councilman Ford Canale and Councilwoman Jerri Green noted the need to work on decreasing the number of aggravated assaults and added context for the data.

"I'm glad to see [crime] numbers going down," Green said. "I do want to keep it in context, which is we're comparing the numbers to the worst year on record for Memphis."

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Comparing numbers to 2022, through data provided by the Memphis Shelby County Crime Commission, there have been 42 more homicides in 2024 than at this point in 2022. Rapes are down by 21 reported incidents and robberies are down by 124 reported incidents.

Aggravated assaults and vehicle thefts seem to be categorized differently by MPD than the crime commission, which uses Tennessee Bureau of Investigation data, as the numbers used by the crime commission to show the first six months of 2023 do not match, nor are they close to, MPD's numbers.

Green also noted that some crimes go unreported by Memphis citizens, meaning they are not counted in the data presented by MPD.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Major violent, property crime down over 17% so far this year, Memphis police data shows