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Sioux Falls Police: Better Than National Average At Solving Crimes
Crime is up all over the United States and Sioux Falls is not immune to the increase. The city saw a spike in all kinds of crime, from property crime and violent crime like homicide. Even though these increases kept police working overtime to solve them, crimes were solved in the city at a higher rate than the national average, Dakota News Now reports.
Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken said in a press briefing on Wednesday that the Police Department's high clearance rate is a testament to the officers serving on the force.
In 2020 the department investigated 13 homicide cases, which is almost double the number of the prior year when the department worked on seven cases. Police Chief Matt Burns said five of those cases were narcotics-related and in 10 of them, the suspect and victim knew each other. Three of those cases involved domestic disputes.
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The Sioux Falls Police Department has solved every homicide during the last 20 years, according to Dakota News Now.
When it comes to drugs, the seizure of Cocaine/Crack was way down. In 2019, Police seized 2019.66 grams and in 2020, 158.74 grams were seized. Meth and synthetic marijuana were seizures were down too, but Meth seizures are still trending higher over the last several years. Heroin and Fentanyl saw big increases in 2020 over the prior year.
According to Burns, stress from COVID-19 is a contributing factor to the rise in reported crime in several categories. He said domestic assault cases were up over recent years, as well as suicides which increased to 32. Burns said the city's suicide rate is near the national average.
Click here for a complete table of Sioux Falls crime statistics.
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