The number of violent crimes reported in Harford County during 2015 decreased slightly compared to the previous year, according to the FBI's annual report on nationwide crime released Monday.
Property crimes, such as burglary and motor vehicle theft, also declined, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Report that tracks crime statistics at national, state, regional and local levels.
"I could not be more proud of the work of the men and women of the Harford County Sheriff's Office to reduce crime and work in collaboration with our citizens to keep our communities safe," Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said in a statement Tuesday.
"When I came into office, I knew that three key strategies would help reduce both violent and property crimes in Harford County," Gahler continued. "Those simple elements of quality policing, strong investigations and community involvement are the three prongs of our comprehensive approach to crime reduction. To that end, members of the Harford County Sheriff's Office focus on both directed patrol and prolific violent offenders to make our communities safer."
The county statistics cover crimes reported to local police agencies that are, in turn, reported to the FBI.
In Harford, reporting to the FBI is done through the Maryland State Police and includes individual reports from the Harford County Sheriff's Office and the municipal police departments in Aberdeen, Bel Air and Havre de Grace, Cristie Kahler, a spokesperson for the Sheriff's Office, said.
There were 425 violent crimes reported in Harford in 2015, including five murders, 31 rapes, 103 robberies and 286 assaults, according to the report.
In 2014, Harford police agencies reported 437 violent crimes, including six murders, 50 rapes, 108 robberies and 273 assaults.
There were 484 violent crimes reported in 2013, including five murders, 59 rapes, 114 robberies and 306 assaults, according to the report.
Harford property crimes
Total property crimes reported in Harford last year were 2,145, including 479 burglaries, 1,587 larcenies or thefts and 79 motor vehicle thefts. One arson was reported.
Those numbers compared with 2,291 property crimes in 2014, including 512 burglaries, 1,698 thefts or larcenies and 81 motor vehicle thefts. No arsons were reported.
Property crime totals for 2015 and 2014 were lower in Harford than in 2013, when local police agencies reported 2,518 property crimes, including 630 burglaries, 1,809 thefts and 79 vehicle thefts, plus a single arson.
"Our reductions could not have been realized without the strong efforts of our deputies, allied law enforcement and most important the citizens of our county," the sheriff said.
Maryland crime rates
For comparative purposes, crime rates are typically cited per 100,000 of population.
Harford's population was 250,209 as of July 1, 2015, as estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau, so the county had a violent crime rate of 169.85 crimes per 100,000 population last year and a property crime rate of 857.3 per 100,000.
Harford's murder rate was just under 2.0 per 100,000, less than half the national average and less than a quarter of Maryland's statewide murder rate, which was among the highest in the U.S.
Maryland, with a population of 6,006,401 had 457.2 violent crimes per 100,000 of population in 2015, including 8.6 murders per 100,000.
The latter figure was exceeded only by Mississippi (2,992,333) with 8.7 murders per 100,000 of population, Louisiana (4,607,724) 10.3, Puerto Rico (3,323,005) 16.8 and the District of Columbia (672,228) 24.1, according to the FBI report.
Maryland reported 2,315 property crimes per 100,000 residents in 2015.
National crime rates
Nationally, there were 1,197,704 violent crimes reported in the population of 321,418,820 in 2015, a rate of 372.6 violent crimes per 100,000 population, according to the FBI.
There were 15,696 murders reported in the United States last year, a rate of 4.9 murders for every 100,000 population.
In 2014, there were 1,153,022 violent crimes reported from a population of 318,907,401 or 361.6 violent crimes for each 100,000 of population. There were 14,164 murders nationwide, or 4.4 per 100,000 of population.
There were 7,993,631 property crimes in the U.S. in 2015, or 2,487.0 per 100,000 population, according to the FBI, down from 8,209,010, or 2,574.1 per 100,000 in 2014.