Crime & Safety

Violent and Property Crimes Down, Robbery and Larceny Up in Reading

Numbers show a decrease in many crimes from 2011 to 2012.

Written by Matt Schooley and Les Masterson

The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report shows that nearly all types of crimes continue to drop in Reading, though robberies showed an uptick in 2012.

The FBI's annual report includes information submitted by local law enforcement agencies. The information is compiled and released to the public in the fall after the reporting year.

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There were 10 reported violent crimes in Reading in 2012, which is a decrease from 11 in 2011 and 13 in 2010. Violent crime includes murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. 

There were no forcible rapes or murders reported in Reading in 2012. There was one reported forcible rapes in 2011 and none in 2010.

Find out what's happening in Readingwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Aggravated assaulted also dropped with four reported in 2012 compared to eight in 2011 and five in 2010.

Property crimes continue to be the most reported crimes in Reading, though there was a major drop in the last year in these crimes. There were 189 property crimes reported in 2012, which is significantly down from 270 in 2011 and 256 in 2010.

After an increase in burglaries from 2010 to 2011, those crimes also decreased in 2012. There were 44 burglaries in 2012 compared to 105 in 2011 and 90 in 2010 in Reading.

Larceny-thefts dropped to 101 reports in 2012, which was down from 111 in 2011, but more than 84 reported in 2010.

Robberies were one of just two crimes to increase in 2012 with six reported compared to two in 2011. The 2012 numbers are less than the number of robberies in 2010, when there were eight reported.

There were nine motor vehicle thefts reported in 2012, which is up from seven in 2011 but down from 10 in 2010.


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