SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City's Police Department has released crime statistics for 2021, the first time these numbers are being shared with the public, though reports from 2019 and 2020 will now be made available.
"Our 2021 CompStat Summary Report gives us important insights on the events we saw, and work we did in 2021. We are committed to having a holistic approach towards community safety," said SLCPD Chief Mike Brown.
In addition to statistics on violent crime and property crime, the report includes a summary on stolen guns, homicides, motor vehicle theft, larceny, response times, top call location for each SLCPD division, and assaults on officers.
In summary, the 2021 statistics are as follows:
- Overall crime, citywide, was down 6% year-to-date from 2020 to 2021.
- Violent crime, citywide, was up 5% year-to-date from 2020 to 2021.
- Property crime, citywide, was down 7% year-to-date from 2020 to 2021.
- The SLCPD saw a 15% increase in the number of calls for service in 2021 when compared to the three-year average.
- The SLCPD saw a 24% increase in the number of firearms reported as stolen when compared to the three-year-average.
- During 2021, 18 homicides occurred in Salt Lake City – the same number of homicides that occurred in 2020.
- During 2021, 2,134 motor vehicles were reported stolen.
In response to the report, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall was encouraged by the open communication and lauded the lower crime levels, but said, "It’s important to state that these improvements by no means represent an absence of crime in Salt Lake City, nor are they cause for us to slow down in our approach to crime reduction."
In November 2021, the Chief Brown and Mayor Mendenhall released an update to the 2021 Crime Control Plan to lower crime, improve response times, fill authorized staffing levels for sworn positions and to continue building community relationships.
Strategies outlined in the Revised Crime Control Plan include expanding recruitment and hiring efforts, developing a violent criminal apprehension team, implementing the Police Civilian Response Team, and expanding the department’s call diversion program and its online reporting capabilities.
