Some property crimes increased in county last year; crimes against persons stable

Jul. 2—CHEYENNE — Following a trend also seen in the Capital City, property crimes in Laramie County went up in some categories, especially vehicle theft, according to data provided to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

Reports of personal crimes, meanwhile, either were little changed or decreased.

Vehicle thefts in the county jumped from 70 in 2020 to 119 in 2021. This trend was also displayed in data from the Cheyenne Police Department.

Before 2021, vehicle thefts in the county were stable back to at least 2018. There were 70 incidents that year.

Reported incidents of burglary and breaking and entering remained stable last year, totaling 152. This was an increase from 2019's 127.

Most forms of larceny or theft also increased in 2021. Thefts from vehicles nearly doubled, reaching 77, up from 41. And 2020's number nearly doubled from 2019.

Undersheriff Kevin James emphasized that these numbers are slotted into federal categories set by the FBI for national data collection, and they often differ from how state statute categorizes certain crimes. The categories do not differentiate between felonies and misdemeanors.

He noted that the Laramie County Sheriff's Office, like many law enforcement agencies across the country, has only organized data in this way since the beginning of 2021. That's when the FBI transitioned from one system to its new National Incident-Based Reporting System, known as NIBRS.

James said that in some isolated cases, a change in how crimes are classified federally may have skewed data between pre- and post-2021 numbers. LCSO data shows a huge increase in thefts of motor vehicle parts and accessories last year. These crimes totaled 54, while they were single-digits in 2020, 2019 and 2018. There have been 22 such thefts recorded so far this year.

Some of the incidents recorded in 2021 may have previously fallen under an "all other larceny" category, which saw a slight decrease — from 245 to 214 incidents. That doesn't account for the entire increase of recorded thefts of motor vehicle parts and accessories, however.

James said it was likely a combination of category changes and an actual increase in thefts.

"Nationally, but certainly here in Laramie County, we did see an increase in property crimes involving motor vehicles, right? We obviously had a large increase in thefts of motor vehicles. So, I think it's safe to say we also did see an increase" in things like thefts from vehicles, and thefts of automotive parts and accessories, the undersheriff said.

James attributed much of the increase in property crime in the county to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects.

"We had large numbers of people out of work, socially isolated, depressed, lacking mental health services during that time. But we still had certain people that were still self-medicating with drug and alcohol addictions, (and) they certainly needed money to keep their habits going."

Some struggled just to pay the bills. "I think we would be foolish to think that some people were not getting desperate to the point that they were committing crimes and things like that to try to make ends meet," the undersheriff said.

Jail operations

Last summer, the county jail, run by the sheriff's office, worked to limit its intake of arrestees as it battled a stubborn outbreak of the coronavirus' highly transmissible delta variant among staff and inmates. Beginning in June, the jail was under a "major outbreak" designation by the Cheyenne-Laramie County Health Department.

Before that, the jail coordinated with courts to reduce jail population, freeing up space for social distancing, by limiting the incarceration of "nonviolent, low-risk offenders." Jail leadership asked area law enforcement to issue citations instead of making arrests, when possible.

The jail's COVID-19 policies have been criticized by some. Sheriff candidate and ex-CPD Chief Brian Kozak has, in his campaign, blamed a rise in property crime on these policies and LCSO leadership.

"It's very easy to criticize when you're not in the position to have to make those difficult choices," James said. "But the people that were criticizing, they weren't responsible for the health and welfare of our inmate population and also all of our employees."

Crimes against persons

James pointed out, as Cheyenne Police Chief Mark Francisco has previously, that Cheyenne and Laramie County did not see the spike in violent crimes since 2020 that many cities across the U.S. have seen.

Robberies increased last year, from two to seven reports.

Aggravated assaults dropped to 60 incidents, compared to 74 the year before. And 2021's numbers were a return to 2018 and 2019 figures.

Forcible rapes continued on a downward trajectory in 2021. Last year's five reported incidents was a decrease from 2020's eight, 2019's 12 and 2018's 15. Data reported by CPD also followed this downward trend.

No murders or incidences of non-negligent manslaughter have been recorded yet this year, nor were there any last year.

Incidences of drug/narcotic violations dropped in 2021 to 126, from 193 in 2020.

James said there were times during the pandemic when law enforcement was instructed to make fewer contacts with people to try and prevent infection. At times like this, "we're not going to witness those crimes or see the drugs and things like that as much as we normally would," he said.

Hannah Black is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's criminal justice reporter. She can be reached at hblack@wyomingnews.com or 307-633-3128. Follow her on Twitter at @hannahcblack.