Every year, tens of thousands of crimes are reported to law enforcement in the city of Phoenix.  What crimes are most common? Where are they reported most often? Are there any trends in the number of crimes reported? A new report from AZ Defenders shows that that after peaking in 2019, reported crime in Phoenix steadily decreased from a high of 68,788 to 62,064 in 2022. 


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The city of Phoenix provides detailed crime report data in its OpenData initiative, with a database that includes homicides, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, thefts, motor vehicle thefts, arsons, and drug offenses.

We analyzed the data to provide insight into those questions and provide as much information on phoenix crime statistics as possible.

When are Most Crimes Reported in Phoenix?

From 2016- 2022, there were 454,226 crimes reported in Phoenix for an average of 64,889 per year.  After peaking in 2019 with 68,788, reported crimes have begun to decrease each subsequent year, falling nearly ten percent by 2022 to 62,064.

Reported Crimes by Day of Year

We also examined the number of crimes reported each day. Perhaps unsurprisingly, January 1st has among the highest number of crimes reported each year, likely due to New Year’s Eve activity.  Interestingly, 34 of the top 50 single days were the first of a month.

The highest number of reported crimes in a single day? August 1st, 2019 with 282 crimes reported to Phoenix police.   The lowest?  Christmas in 2022 with 99 crimes reported.  In fact, Christmas day was consistently among the lowest crime days, with 4 of the 6 years in among the ten lowest days.

Where Do Reported Crimes Take Place Most Often?

A crime can occur anywhere and in any setting.  In Phoenix, the setting where a crime occurs depends, of course, on the type of crime committed.Our dataset contains two types of location data: premises or location type and zip code.

PREMISES AND LOCATION TYPE

Premise and location type are brief descriptions of the type of location where the crime occurred.  This can include an apartment, single-family house, restaurant, hotel, convenience market, the side of the road, etc.

Robberies, for instance, are most likely to happen on the street or in a parking lot.  Theft, on the other hand, is most likely to occur at a residence or retail business.  Cars are most likely to be reported stolen at an apartment complex.