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Las Vegas police: Murder, robbery rates drop in 2017 but rapes increase

Posted at 2:15 PM, Jan 18, 2018
and last updated 2018-01-19 08:59:04-05

Las Vegas police report murder and robbery rates dropped in 2017 but rape cases and aggravated assault cases increased.

Not including 1 October in which 58 people were murdered, police said 141 people were murdered in 2017, a decrease from 157 in 2016. 27 of the murders occurred in December, while the previous monthly high was 13 in both May and October. Police said the majority of murders -- 83 percent -- were solved with people arrested. 

According to police, 1 October is not categorized under murder but is calculated in the overall violent crime numbers. 

Meanwhile, robbery cases went down from 3,701 in 2016 to 3,281 in 2017.

However, rape cases increased this past year from 1,152 cases in 2016 to 1,249 in 2017. Aggravated assault cases, which involve firearms, knives or other dangerous weapons, also rose from 4,168 to 4,368 from 2016 to 2017.

Police said there has also been an increase in drug-related altercations where someone gets robbed or killed over a small amount of drugs. 

Overall property crime was down. Property crimes include burglary, larceny theft and motor vehicle theft. Vehicle thefts went down from 9,090 in 2016 to 7,923 in 2017 while burglary also decreased from 13,082 to 12,620 year-to-year. 

Overall, violent crime nearly stayed the same from 2016 to 2017, only down 0.9 percent, police said.