Violent crime is up in Kansas, corrected KBI stats show, after error with Wichita police
Violent crime actually increased in Kansas last year and did not decrease as previous, inaccurate state crime statistics had shown.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation announced Thursday that the Kansas violent crime index saw a statewide increase of 2.9% in 2022. The KBI had reported a 4.3% decrease when the crime statistics were originally released in July.
"When we recognized how many offenses weren't represented in the annual crime report, we knew we had a responsibility to let the public, the Legislature, and our law enforcement partners know that what we understood about crime in Kansas had changed," said KBI director Tony Mattivi. "For example, in the report from July, we saw a slight decrease in violent crime statewide, and with these additional offenses being accounted for, we now know Kansas saw a slight increase in violent crime in 2022."
The old, inaccurate report and news release had touted two years in a row of dropping violent crime that "seems to have started to level off" after rising for most of the past decade. Now, the KBI says "violent crime in Kansas has been steadily rising."
The KBI also touted record-low levels of property crime, which remains true in the amended report.
Why was the Kansas crime data inaccurate?
Data in the Kansas Crime Index Report comes from standard offense and arrests reports submitted by local law enforcement agencies to the Kansas Incident Based Reporting System.
This year, the KBI didn't have accurate statistics from the second-largest law enforcement agency in the state. The KBI worked with the Wichita Police Department to identify a system error that caused crimes to be undercounted in KIBRS by several thousand offenses.
Wichita Police Chief Joe Sullivan said in statement via the KBI that his department alerted the KBI to the inaccuracies after reviewing the report. Since then, his department has implemented additional checks.
Crime statistics — and faulty crime statistics reported by WPD — had been a point of contention during the mayoral race in the state's largest city.
The KBI reopened the system and received 4,979 additional crime reports. About 72% of those were from Wichita police, with the rest from other law enforcement agencies.
"These reports came from the erred submission, as well as from agencies who were either catching up on crime data submissions not entered by the deadline, or who had additional crimes reported to their agency for 2022, after the original report was published," the KBI said. "Since the new reports had a substantial impact on our understanding of crime in Kansas, the report was amended and republished."
The amended report added 959 more violent crimes and 4,020 more property crimes.
The revised 2022 statistics show increases from 2021 in rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults, but a decrease in murders. Burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft and arson also dropped.
Is the data accurate now?
It's likely the data remains undercounted, as several other agencies — mostly small town police departments and sheriff offices — didn't report statistics.
The KBI also notes that crime statistics are dependent on victims reporting crimes to law enforcement, which can mean crime is underreported.
Data system is being updated
The state's current crime reporting system is outdated, the KBI said, and "operates with severe constraints on how statistics can be collected, utilized and interpreted."
The agency has been overseeing an upgrade of KIBRS, which "will significantly improve crime reporting and crime trend analysis in Kansas."
Jason Alatidd is a statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@gannett.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Corrected KBI statistics show 2022 increase in violent crime in Kansas
