Cedar Rapids Sees Slight Uptick In Violent Crime

CEDAR RAPIDS — End-of-the-year data shows Cedar Rapids saw a slight increase in violent crimes in 2018, but crime overall in the city continues to go down, police Chief Wayne Jerman said.“I am encouraged that there continues to be a downward trend over the last decade,” he said. “We’ve also seen a decrease in murders, robberies and burglaries, which I think shows we’re continuing to make progress.”According to data submitted to the FBI, Cedar Rapids in 2018 saw 368 instances of violent crime — a category that includes murder and non-negligent manslaughter, sexual assault, robbery and aggravated assault — a slight increase from the 355 cases in 2017.Despite that one-year uptick, the city’s five-year average for violent crime dipped by 3.16 percent in 2018.The number of killings dropped from six to three, while aggravated assaults saw a significant jump from 199 to 227.Included under the aggravated assault category are instances of attempted murder, domestic abuse, armed aggravated assaults and assault on police or firefighters that caused serious injury, all of which saw increases in 2018.Domestic violence incidents showed the most significant increase, jumping from 66 incidents to 91, accounting for much of the uptick in the assault numbers.Jerman called the increase “extremely concerning.” But he noted that higher numbers do not always indicate an increase in incidents.“We think a lot of the reason for the increase is that victims of domestic violence are becoming more comfortable with calling and talking to us,” he said.Incidents of attempted murder were also on the rise in 2018, more than doubling from three 2017 to seven in 2018.