Sheriff report: Suicides, new registered guns at 10year highs

Annual crime stats also show drunk driving, reported sex crimes down

When Gratiot County Sheriff Mike Morris released his 2020 crime report he noted that the numbers were somewhat skewed from the previous year due to the stay-at-home orders and other restrictions that occurred during the first several months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although the figures included in his 2021 report reflect a more normal year there are still some statistics that standout.

For example, the number of suicide or suicide attempts, guns registered, fire investigations, motor vehicle thefts and conservation violations were all at 10-year highs.

However, the total number of arrests, drunk

driving violations, criminal sexual conduct complaints and assaults all declined even from those deflated 2020 figures.

There were 32 suicides and suicide attempts in 2021, the most in a least a decade and an increase from 18 in 2020, which was the highest since 2011.

The number of guns registered nearly tripled from the previous year from 661 to 1,711 in 2021. The only year that came close to that figure in the past 10 years was 1,544, in 2013.

Fire investigations rose from 28 in 2021 to 39 in 2021, again the most in the past decade.

Motor vehicle thefts were up from 11 to 18 in 2021, while there were 22 conservation violations compared to nine the previous year.

The highest for each of those categories during the past 10 years was 14.

The total number of arrests, however, declined from 940 in 2020 to 811 last year.

Those included 674 misdemeanor arrests and 127 felony arrests in 2021 compared to 794 and 137 respectively the previous year.

The number of drunk driving arrests declined from 107 in 2020 to 95 last year, the lowest number since there were 94 in 2012.

Criminal sexual conduct complaints decreased from 27 in 2020 to 19 in 2021, the fewest since 2014 when there were 18.

The total number of simple assaults were down from 123 to 106, the least since 2012, while felonious assaults declined from 25 to 17.

Among other figures included in the report were:

Other categories that declined from 2020 to 2021 were disorderly and harassment complaints from 84 to 80, liquor law violations from 38 to 34, controlled substance violations from 35 to 30, retail fraud from 76 to 43 and malicious destruction of property complaints from 109 to 91.