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Fewer violent crimes downtown, but non-violent crimes are on the rise

The City's Public Safety Director said there are fewer homicides this year than in 2020 and 2019.

ST. LOUIS — The City's Public Safety Department said it is seeing a downward trend in violent crimes.

"There were no violent incidents to report in the downtown or in the downtown west neighborhoods from this weekend," St. Louis City Public Safety Director Dan Isom said.

St. Louis City's Public Safety Director Dan Isom was happy to report the progress in declining violent crimes downtown and across St. Louis during Monday's briefing.

"We are currently at 177 UCR homicides this year. At the same time last year, we had 247 and in 2019 at this time we had 184," Isom said.

"I think it's time to build this area back up," David Shanks, owner of Whisky on Washington said.

He credits the hard work of the city's leaders on declining violent crime trends and their push to bring more business to downtown.

"As those things grow and come back around, crime will go down and the people and residents will go up," Shanks said.

Even though violent crimes are down, non-violent crimes continue to be a problem. Isom reported 13 car break-ins and two guns stolen over the weekend.

"We have a group of detectives working on car break-ins in the downtown and downtown west neighborhoods. They're working to obtain video, identify potential suspects and monitor any activity to identify any trends that come from their research," Isom said.

Isom urged people not to leave their weapons or valuables in the car. A rule of thumb Shanks believes you should follow anywhere you go.

"Just kind of want to remind people of the dos and the don'ts of parking your car in downtown and that's any downtown in America. You leave something in your car, it's most likely going to be broken into," Shanks said.

With all the holiday shopping, Isom reminded everyone not to store gifts or valuables in your car.

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