DENVER (KDVR) — The pandemic year was an especially crime-ridden year for Colorado.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation released its 2020 numbers on Tuesday morning, and crime spiked in 2020 in nearly every major category, particularly in violent and property crimes.
Motor vehicle theft was the most dramatic increase. There were 22,321 vehicle thefts in 2019 but 30,942 in 2020 – a 39% increase year over year.
Violent crime categories surged in 2020 as well, increasing by 6.52% in 2020.
About one person more was killed every week in 2020 than in 2019. Colorado saw a 29% jump in murders and non-negligent manslaughters in 2020, from 227 in 2019 to 292 last year.
There were also 2,400 more aggravated assaults in 2020, a 17.4% year over year increase. Likewise, robbery increase 6.5%.
The lone category that saw improvement concerns sex crimes. Non-consensual sex offenses dropped by 17% in 2020, meaning about 22 fewer Coloradans were assaulted every week than the year before.