Looking back to 2018: Early data shows crime down in South Bend compared to last year

By: Tiffany Salameh

Posted: Dec 31, 2018 5:45 PM EST

NOW: Looking back to 2018: Early data shows crime down in South Bend compared to last year

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Taking a look back into 2018, the South Bend Police department responded to nearly 90,000 calls for service.

That’s an average of 245 calls to the police a day.

Over 18,000 of those calls turned into cases and the most common crimes involved theft and burglaries followed by reports of aggravated assault.

Some in the community were not surprised to find out that, for the most part, crime in South Bend is down compared to last year’s numbers.

Carlos Torres lives in the South Bend area and said he feels safe.

“It’s basically isolated issues,” Torres said. “People are safe to be on the streets, people are safe to be in different places.”

There were less shootings, homicides, thefts and residential burglaries reported in 2018 but some crime numbers have increased since 2017 with reports of arson and aggravated assault and motor vehicle thefts up in the last year.

Hannah Rider has lived in South Bend area her whole life and said she’s noticed a drop off in crime in the last few years.

“Not shocking, so much as i feel like it’s a good thing more people are aware of the things going on in the community,” Rider said.

In 2018, both non-fatal and fatal shootings have gone down and homicide and rape cases have also decreased.

Some in South Bend think the community deserves some credit for it.

“Nowadays when there’s a crime, the community gets together and tries to solve the issue,” Torres said. “We get to see right away on social media, the news break, and the people getting involved.”

They think new technology, social media, and neighborhood watch programs have all played a part in the numbers this year.

“People have ring doorbells where they can videotape people for burglaries and things like that and there’s community Facebook pages and things like that so it’s a lot easier to catch people when they do the crimes now,” Rider said.

They also have a message to the South Bend Police Department for their efforts in 2018…

“We have people complaining about the way the Mishawaka police or South Bend police or Elkhart police are performing but it’s in isolated cases and most of the time I think they are doing a good job and I congratulate them on that,” Torres said.

FULL BREAK DOWN OF NUMBERS: http://police-southbend.opendata.arcgis.com/

*Dec. 2018 numbers have not yet been added online and all numbers in this article do not account for them*

2018

Non-fatal shootings – 66

Fatal shootings – 9

Robbery – 315

Rape – 67

MVT – 481

Larceny – 3096

Homicides – 8

Burglary Residential – 641

Burglary Non Res – 341