2015 T.B.I. Crime in Tennessee Report Shows Continued Improvement in Kingsport
KINGSPORT – On April 18, 2016 the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation released their 2015 Crime in Tennessee Report.‚ This annual report highlights crimes, arrests, and clearance rates of individual jurisdictions as well as the State of Tennessee as a whole.‚ The 2015 analysis indicates that the City of Kingsport continues to head in the right direction.
When comparing the 2015 data to that of the previous year, the Kingsport Police Department saw a slight overall decrease (just over 1% ) in the more serious crimes known collectively as Group A Offenses.‚ The City of Kingsport also saw a just over 1% decrease in the overall crime rate when comparing 2015 to 2014.‚ The T.B.I. calculates crime rate as the number of Group A crimes per 100,000 residents.
These results are a continuation of an ongoing downward crime curve in Kingsport over the past few years. ‚ Since 2012, Kingsport has experienced an 18% decrease in reported Group A Offenses and a 24% decrease in the overall crime rate.‚ While a few individual crime categories inevitably saw spikes in 2015, the department and the city are pleased with this overall continued improvement trend.‚ Some of the specific crimes which saw a decrease in reported instances include kidnapping, aggravated assault, stalking, arson, embezzlement, and domestic violence.
The City of Kingsport has traditionally experienced extremely low instances of what can best be termed as random acts of violence committed by compete strangers, and 2015 was no exception.‚ The vast majority of violent crimes were committed by someone with whom the victim was acquainted.‚ For example, while there was an increase in the number of murders reported in 2015, none would be considered random acts.‚ Every single one was committed by someone with whom the victim was acquainted, and every single one has since been cleared by arrest.
While on the subject of clearance rates, another category in which the Kingsport Police Department continues to improve is in solving crimes once they are reported.‚ K.P.D.s 2015 overall clearance rate was 50.81% which is more than a 3% improvement over last years clearance rate of 47.45%.‚ K.P.D.s clearance rate has continued to climb every single year for the past few years, improving by nearly 14% since 2012.‚ K.P.D.s 2015 clearance rate also tops the statewide clearance rate of 39.27% by roughly 11.5%.
To view the 2015 and earlier Crime in Tennessee Reports, please visit the following link:
