Ask ELi: Where can I Learn about Crime in East Lansing?

It’s a question we've been asked more than once: How do I learn more about crime in my area?

From car break-ins to assault, the City of East Lansing has several resources available online. This article gives a brief overview of these tools, where to find them and what they offer.

ELPD's Web Page

The Police Department's web page provides information including important news, phone numbers and links to several public-safety related sites including CrimeMapping (explained  below) and the top ten accident locations in the area. It also allows you to sign up to receive text alerts about public saety emergencies in East Lansing and surrounding communities.

CrimeMapping

Available via the City’s website or here and hosted through CrimeMapping.com, users of this service are presented with a local map of East Lansing and surrounding communities. Default settings show all offenses handled by local police in the last week with differing icons to note what the nature of the crime was. (Points are only generated for offenses that involve a police report. Minor traffic offenses, for example, do not appear on the map.)

Users can alter the map filters, namely the range of dates, location, type of crime and department.

Further, users can click on icons to get more information about specific crimes, or switch from the map to a list view of all reported crimes by clicking the “report” button on the left side of the screen.

There’s also a function that produces automated graphs to break down crime by type and day of the week.

ELPD Weekly Reports

These reports, generated weekly, and officially referred to as “ELPD Case and Arrest Summaries,” offer a day-by-day breakdown of crimes that occurred in the last seven days.

Available as PDFs from the City’s website, these reports cover Monday-Sunday each week, and include all police activity in that week. This report includes activities not covered by CrimeMapping.com, including traffic stops, assisting other officers or departments with K9 units, executing warrants, and investigative work.

Sorted by day of the month in chronological order, each case is in its own row, with columns for arrestees (usually not listed), location, cross street and charged offense.

At the bottom of each day’s grouping, the total number of cases and arrestees are listed, as well as weekly sums at the end of the report.

ELPD Annual Report

This report, released annually by the ELPD, is available on the City’s website. (The 2017 report can be viewed here.)

At nearly 40 pages, the annual report is an overview of the police department in a specific year. It notes hires, departures, staff changes and outlines the different units within the department and their respective jobs.

Two sections of the report specifically focus on crime: jail (pages 11-12) and crime statistics (pages 35-38).

The two-page section on the jail gives a brief explanation of ELPD’s facilities, and some data on arrests. It gives a three-year tracking of prisoners lodged by year (2017 continued a marked decline), and two pie charts, one showing alcohol related arrests versus those not involving alcohol, as well as the numbers of men versus women jailed.

Deeper down, the crime statistics portion gives a broad overview of the crimes ELPD dealt with during a given year.

Appearing first is a 10-year index of “part one” crimes — murder, criminal sexual conduct (first or third degree), robbery, assault, arson, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and retail fraud. Below that is a break down of part one crimes in 2017. (904 in total, with no murders.)

Following the part one index is a year-by-year, type-by-type breakdown of “part two” offenses — negligent homicide/manslaughter, disorderly conduct, DUI, nonaggravated assaulted, narcotics charges, sex offenses, vandalism, embezzlement and others.

Finally, there is a breakdown of “all others,” crimes either minor or rare enough that they are lumped into a miscellaneous grouping. These include obstructing police, kidnapping, fraud, trespassing and warrant arrests, among others.

Last on the report is a chart of general offenses issued.

ELPD's annual reports for a given calendar year are issued early the following year. The next annual report, covering 2018, will be issued in early 2019.