Town-By-Town Crime Stats Released: Here's What The Numbers Reveal

CONNECTICUT — Crimes against persons and crimes against society are both down in Connecticut, but property crimes have taken a double-digit spike in the past year.

That's the top-level view of the data documented in the 2023 edition of Crime in Connecticut, released by the State Police Crime Analysis Unit last week.

State analysts said they had 100 percent participation of municipal, state and tribal law enforcement agencies.

Since 1930, participating local, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies have voluntarily provided the nation with crime statistics through the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program via the Summary Reporting System. On Jan. 1, 2021 that system was retired, and the country shifted to National Incident-Based Reporting System. By that date, all 107 of Connecticut’s law enforcement agencies were submitting data in incident-based format. The Crimes Analysis Unit maintains and submits Connecticut’s crime data to the FBI.

The analysis compares the number of crimes brought to the attention of law enforcement agencies and reported to the state in 2023 with previous years, and with the data reported by other states to the FBI. Town-by-town rankings were also included in the report, and appear below.

The NIBRS breaks the down across three categories.:

• Crimes Against Persons decreased by 3.8 percent with 30,354 offenses reported in 2023 compared to 31,546 offenses reported in 2022. These crimes include murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, negligent manslaughter, kidnapping/abduction, assault offenses, sex offenses, and human trafficking offenses.
• Crimes Against Property increased by 11.0 percent with 98,277 offenses reported in 2023 compared to 88,523 offenses reported in 2022. These crimes include arson, bribery, burglary/breaking & entering, counterfeiting/forgery, destruction /damage/vandalism of property, embezzlement, extortion/ blackmail, fraud offenses, larceny/theft offenses, motor vehicle theft, robbery, and stolen property offenses.
• Crimes Against Society decreased by 2.2 percent with 10,328 offenses reported in 2023 compared to 10,565 offenses reported in 2022. These crimes include animal cruelty, drug/narcotic violations, drug equipment violations, gambling offenses, pornography, prostitution offenses, and weapon law violations.

Data used to create report was current as of April 30, 2024, according to the Connecticut State Police Crime Analysis Unit.

The Group A offenses collected in the NIBRS program are: animal cruelty, arson, assault offenses (aggravated, simple, and intimidation), bribery, burglary, counterfeiting/forgery, destruction/damage/ vandalism of property, drug /narcotic offenses, embezzlement, extortion/blackmail, fraud offenses, gambling offenses, homicide offenses, human trafficking offenses, kidnapping/abduction, larceny/ theft offenses, motor vehicle theft, sex offenses, pornography/obscene material, prostitution offenses, robbery, stolen property, and weapons law violations.

Group B offenses, not tabulated here, are collected when an arrest is made, and include "lesser" crimes such as loitering, vagrancy, disorderly conduct, DUI, trespassing and liquor law violations.

Connecticut crimes per capita remained comfortably below the pace set nationwide, but tipped upward sightly in 2023, from 1,685.8 to 1,700.6 index crimes per 100,000 people, compared to 2022. Index crimes are the eight transgressions the FBI combines to produce its annual crime index: willful homicide, forcible rape, robbery, burglary, aggravated assault, larceny over $50, motor vehicle theft, and arson.

Connecticut Senate Republicans interpreted the numbers as a call for lawmakers to "untie the hands" of law enforcement:

"The double-digit percentage rise in property crimes is unsettling and should get all of our attention. It reinforces that as lawmakers, we must stand with law enforcement and with victims of crime. Law enforcement officers in our state are currently prevented from doing their jobs as a result of policies passed by majority Democrats," the state GOP leadership said in a statement released Wednesday.

Calling "any instance of any crime" unacceptable, Gov. Ned Lamont said the new report "shows that our state continues to be one of the safest in the entire country. Over the last several years, we’ve made significant investments in programs and services that are proven to help deter crime, and we need to keep moving forward on these kinds of policies that have a real impact on improving the safety of our communities and the people who live here."

2023 population estimates in the data below were provided by the FBI.

Some towns have resident troopers that report their data to CSP, and some towns are solely monitored by CSP.

Some towns have their own police department, while the Connecticut State Police handle crimes on the interstates and highways in and around town jurisdictions.

Changes to the 2023 edition

The Federal Bureau of Investigation made several changes to the National Incident-Based Reporting System in 2023. The definition of rape was modified to incorporate the offenses of sodomy and sexual assault with an object. Therefore, in this report those offenses were combined with the offense of rape for reporting purposes.