GREELEY — Total reported crime from 2012 to 2013 fell 1 percent, according to Weld County Sheriff’s Office preliminary crime statistics released earlier this month.
Weld County Sheriff John Cooke praised the work of the county’s Strike Team, a special law enforcement group within WCSO that responds to trends in crime data.
“Because of the implementation of the ‘Strike Team’ concept, which was created to proactively target and arrest repeat offenders, the crime statistics were heavily impacted by their successes,” Cooke said. “Many crimes that would have likely otherwise gone undetected or unreported were captured statistically. While the work of the “Strike Team” helped to reduce the overall impact of the criminal element in Weld County, the net effect of the team’s efficiency is noted in several of the attached reports.”
Weld County reports the data as uniform crime reports, the official format for crime statistics used by the FBI.
The crime statistics are divided into UCR Part 1, which contains more serious offenses such as homicide and rape, and UCR Part 2, which includes lesser crimes.
There was an overall 8-percent decrease in category 1 UCR crimes between 2012 and 2013.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigations and Weld County publicly post crime data for their jurisdictions every year, but Cooke advised that proper context was needed to evaluate trends.
“The data is compiled throughout the course of the year and is subject to change as cases and court dispositions are updated,” Cooke said. “As with all statistics, attention must be given to the total “reported number” in relation to percentage changes. Comparisons, in some cases, may be misleading without the proper context. Due to changes in crime classifications some reporting criteria change from year to year.”
The crime statistics include all of the areas in Weld County that the Sheriff’s Office provides the primary law enforcement service.
Contact Ben Wiebesiek at
bwiebesiek@metrowestnewspapers.com.