The Kansas Bureau of Investigation has released an amended 2022 Kansas Crime Index Report. The report compiles crime statistics reported to the KBI by state and local law enforcement agencies throughout Kansas.
According to the KBI, the 2022 Kansas Crime Index Report indicated that violent crime in Kansas increased by 2.9% from 2021. It increased in each of the categories of violent crime except for murder, which saw a 2.9% decline from the previous year. A total of 13,808 violent crimes were reported in Kansas in the categories of murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault and battery. This is a continuing trend as violent crime in Kansas has been steadily rising each year since 2014, only declining slightly in 2021. Violent crime in 2022 was 17.5% above the 10-year average.
By contrast, in 2022 overall property crimes declined by 4.1%. In Kansas, property offenses have steadily declined since 2017. Property crime offenses are assumed to be underreported to law enforcement.
Data from the Kansas Crime Index report is derived from standard offense and arrest reports submitted to the Kansas Incident Based Reporting System (KIBRS) by local law enforcement agencies across Kansas. The 2022 report required amending after the Wichita Police Department (WPD) alerted the KBI that their agency's crime data appeared incomplete after the 2022 crime index was published. In working with the WPD, a system error was identified. This error was not immediately noticed, causing thousands of offenses to not be counted by KIBRS in the July crime index report. Since then, the KBI and the WPD have worked closely together to ensure all reports were received.
"Upon reviewing the crime data released by the KBI, the Wichita Police Department promptly alerted KBI to the inaccuracies. Collaborating with KBI, we pinpointed the issue and rectified it," said Wichita Police Chief Joe Sullivan.
Find the amended 2022 Kansas Crime Index report, and previous year's statistics at kansas.gov/kbi/stats/stats_crime.shtml.
