By Ray King

Twenty fewer incidents last month compared to June 2019 resulted in a just over 5.5 percent drop in reported crime in Pine Bluff.

According to the monthly report from the Police Department, there were 339 reported crimes in June compared to 359 in June 2019 or a 5.57 percent decrease.

With the exception of simple assaults and aggravated assaults, crimes against persons categories declined or remained the same last month compared to June 2019 and the increases in the two assault categories were small. For example, simple assaults increased by 8 from 104 to 112 while there were five more aggravated assaults, 41 last month compared to 36 in June 2019.

There were half as many rapes or attempted rapes reported (3 last month, 6 in June 2019) and a third fewer robberies (6 last month, nine in June 2019). One murder was reported in both June 2020 and in June 2019. For the first six months of 2019, 15 murders were reported in Pine Bluff compared to 13 during the same period this year.

So far in July, two murders have been reported in Pine Bluff. That equals the number of murders reported in July 2019.

Looking at crimes against property, residential burglaries in June showed a significant decrease compared to June 2019. Last month there were 15 reported residential burglaries compared to 51 during June 2019. Commercial burglaries increased by two from 13 in 2019 to 15 last month.

Reported thefts increased from 111 to 134 while motor vehicle thefts declined by more than 50 percent, falling from 28 in June 2019 to 12 last month.

So far this year, there have been 1,774 total crimes that have to be reported to the FBI. For the same period in 2019, 4,361 crimes were reported. That’s 2,587 fewer cries or 59.32 percent less.