2019 Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) Uniform Crime Report (UCR) statistics have been released. The UCR only collects data on a select sliver of all crimes the police handle. UCR violent crimes include Murder, Rape, Robbery, Aggravated Assault/Battery and UCR property crimes are Burglary, Theft, Motor Vehicle Theft, and Arson. The Parsons Police Department can announce that Parsons has lowered its violent crime rate from 2018. This decrease is a direct result of the partnership that the citizens have with their police department and shows that 'See It, Hear It, Report It' does work. The violent crime rate for Parsons dropped from 9.6 in 2018 to 7.6 in 2019. In 2019 Parsons had 73 total violent crimes.

"We are also releasing the Parsons 2019 Crime Clock" said Sergeant Jason Ludwig. "We release the Crime Clock annually and hand this out to the community during events like 'Coffee with a Cop' and speaking engagements that staff present. Putting the crime rate of the city into a timeline allows citizens to see the crime rate in a new perspective. Knowing the police have a call load of 16,202 calls for service per year means that every 33 minutes officers are responding to an incident. That kind of information really opens up someone's eyes. I know that even as I collected the statistics, I was shocked to see the results of the clock."

Parsons Police Chief Robert Spinks said, "this is what we have expected as a department. We watched the numbers over the last year as the calls for service came in and knew that we were seeing a drop in our Violent Crime rating. But with any gain there comes a small sacrifice. Our property crime stats had a slight increase over 2018."

"The Per Capita and total numbers of reported crime tell a different story. We may have a 48.2 crime rating per capita, but that only translates to 461 UCR crimes for the entire year. Considering that the City of Parsons is the 36th largest city in Kansas that number is considerably low," said Sgt. Ludwig.

Aggravated Domestic Battery continues to drive the violent crime rate in Parsons up because of a 2017 law change. This law change made certain levels of domestic battery felonies that were previously misdemeanors.

"It is gratifying that our agency has been able to achieve a successful case clearance rate for crime that is twice the national average," said Deputy Chief Dennis Dodd.

"Often times residents are quick to compare the City of Parsons to the likes of Wichita. In comparison to the larger cities the only likeness is that they are the largest Municipalities in their region. Large Cities like Wichita have much smaller communities around that like Derby and Augusta and Andover. All which boast a much smaller crime rate than Wichita. Parsons is also unique as we are surrounded by smaller cities and share a criminal element with other cities like Coffeyville and Independence. Our smaller communities are Altamont and Cherryvale and Oswego all whose criminals are committing crimes in Parsons due to our larger population base just like Wichita," concluded Sgt. Ludwig.

Parsons UCR data can be found at http://www.kansas.gov/kbi/stats/stats_crime2019.shtml

In southeast Kansas, our comparable cities of Pittsburg, Coffeyville, Independence and Parsons saw some reductions in crime. Parsons had 461 UCR crimes for a 48.2 crime rate per capita. Pittsburg had 1,343 UCR crimes for a 66.6 crime rate per capita. Independence had 494 UCR crimes for a 58.1 crime rate per capita leaving Coffeyville with 414 UCR crimes and 44.7 crime rate per capita. Coffeyville was able to see the largest drop in their UCR crime per capita largely in part of the refinery acquiring large portions of property that were previously housing.

The 2020 census report put the City of Parsons population at 9,495. That is a 9.57% decrease in population since 2010 according to World Population Reviews website https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/parsons-ks-population.

You can also find more information on the Parsons Police Department or download the Annual Report at www.parsonspd.com.