Despite spate of recent homicides, violent crime trending down in Sioux Falls

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The violent crime rate in Sioux Falls through the first eight months of the year is at its lowest rate in more than four years, but several recent homicides could be clouding perceptions, Mayor Paul TenHaken said Tuesday.

The mayor and law enforcement officials released crime statistics during a briefing that now occurs twice a year to keep the community abreast of trends in crime. Per-capita violent crime is at 5.88 per 1,000 residents compared to 6.21 a year ago. It’s the lowest rate since crime spiked locally and nationwide during 2020.

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“What you’re going to hear is crime is very manageable in our community,” TenHaken said at the start of Tuesday’s press conference. “It continues to be manageable.”

Per capita is used to measure the average number of occurrences of an event and is useful to measure trends among cities with different population numbers. While total crimes have increased with the city’s rising population, the average number within that overall population is stable.

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