How Did COVID Impact Boise Crime Rates In 2020

A few years ago I was watching the Superbowl and I don't know why, but I found it really interesting that the announcer decided to share that traditionally crime rates would go down during the hours that the big game was on. It made sense to me. Think about it, if people are inside their homes watching the game that means that they're not outside committing crimes or having crimes committed against them.

Fast forward to 2020 and throw in a pandemic where people are mandated to stay  home from work and are encouraged to avoid gatherings. It would seem logical that there would be less break-ins because typically crooks don't break in to homes when people are present. You would think that there would be less people driving which means less speeding tickets and definitely less accidents on the road. In theory this is all fine and dandy, so what really happened to crime rates in Boise this past year.

According to the official Boise Police crime report for 2020 titled " A report to our community" indeed there was a drop in crime in comparison to 2019.  Here are a few highlights from the annual report:

• 9 percent drop in overall crime.
• 2 percent increase in violent crime.
• 200 percent increase in identity theft. (makes sense, criminals sitting at home with a computer in front of them, What did we think was going to happen?
• 1801 hours were spent patrolling protest. (there was no shortage in protests in 2020)
• 21,055 Traffic citations were issued.
• The Total budget for 2020 efforts was  $67,052,181

Keep in mind that 2020 was also the beginning of a new era for BPD as a new Police Chief Ryan Lee was introduced to the department. There you have it, the next time you wonder what BPD is doing with your hard earned tax dollars... now you know.