Oklahoma 4th highest in burglaries

Oklahoma ranks fourth in the nation when it comes to burglaries, according to a new study based on the latest data from the 2018 FBI’S Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program.

With 11.09 burglaries per 1,000 households, Oklahoma came in behind New Mexico, Mississippi, and Louisiana in a report on states with the highest burglary rates released last week by Safehome.org.

“The frequency of major crimes continues to decline nationally, but burglaries made up 15% of all crimes in 2017 and the total value of what was stolen exceeded $3 billion,” the group said in a press release.

The good news is that reports of this type of crime have dropped substantially in recent years.

“Burglary accounts for just under 20% of all property crimes, but the prevalence of burglary has been falling consistently over the past several years,” Safehome’s website states. “Just over 1.4 million burglaries occurred in the United States in 2017, according to the FBI. That’s the lowest total number of burglaries reported by the FBI in the past 20 years.”

The report that 44.9% of burglaries occur in the Southwest, 26.3% in the West, 19.6% in the Midwest, and 9.1% in the Northeast.

More than 60% of burglaries take place during the daytime, and 57% involve forcible entry to a home or business.

“The average burglary in 2017 involved stolen cash and other items valuing $2,416,” the report stated, noting that just 29% of the value of all items stolen in all types of theft, including burglaries, robberies and car thefts, was recovered that year.

The vast majority of burglaries in the United States are never solved, with arrests taking place less than 14% of the time.

Lawton, Oklahoma had the 10th highest burglary rate of all U.S. metropolitan areas, with 16.25 per 1,000 housing units.

To protect your home from being burglarized, make sure you have your mail held or picked up by a neighbor when you are out of town. It’s also a good idea to have lights on timers in different parts of your house so it looks like someone is there. A current inventory of all valuables, including photographs, will make it easier to file an insurance claim should the worst happen, and this will also be helpful to police in solving the case and recovering stolen items. (La Semana)