Police seeing higher crime rates, especially in some neighborhoods

Jenna Wilson, St. Joseph News-Press, Mo.
·2 min read
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Sep. 28—Property offenses like burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson are driving a crime increase in St. Joseph, particularly in certain areas.

In 2020, St. Joseph had a total of 8,005 crimes, putting the city at a rate of 107.15 offenses per 1,000 residents, according to statistics released by the St. Joseph Police Department. And numbers are on the rise.

"Unfortunately, I can tell you that number has increased by about 37.5%," Sgt. Matt Kneib, a crime prevention officer, said. "We've had a little over 11,000 crimes this past year. We also had a lower crime rate than Kansas City in 2020, but now we've surpassed them."

The St. Joseph Police Department receives crime reports from all across the city, but a higher number of calls tend to come from certain areas.

"Kirschner and Angelique Street are two areas that deal with some sort of theft on a daily basis," Kneib said. "We get so many reports about cars getting hijacked, house burglaries, stolen purses and other personal items, nearly anything you can think of. Even on Faraon, which isn't too far from the police department, we've gotten a lot of reports regarding stolen mail and packages. That is very much a crime and if you're caught there will be consequences for it."

Highly Street and N. 11th and Lewis Park also are areas in St. Joseph that see high crime rates, he said. Issues like poverty and lifestyle can drive more theft, officers have found.

"Naturally, crime is going to be higher in poverty-stricken areas because you have people that are taking things they don't have from other people," Kneib said. "Or, there's people associated with a gang and it just becomes a cycle. That's why we have to do our job and make sure we're policing those highly targeted areas so people don't feel comfortable doing these criminal acts."

The police department's crime prevention unit works to provide the public with many different training resources to establish a safe environment. One of these resources is a Neighborhood Watch Program where citizens work alongside law enforcement to reduce crime in different areas.

"Crime is always evolving," Kneib said. "We're looking at different ways of trying to combat crime issues and developing different software programs."