The Current Status of Crimes in Miami-Dade County Following the Global Pandemic: A Comparison Between 2020 and 2021
Early into 2020, the Miami-Dade Police Department began reporting the number of crimes committed throughout Miami-Dade County, which included homicides, forcible sex offenses, aggravated assaults, burglaries, larceny, and motor vehicle theft.
These reports are based on numbers of counted victims, premises entered, vehicles stolen, and robbery cases. All data was collected after the crimes had been officially reported. While not including the second half of 2020 from April to December, it includes January to March from last year and this year to compare any change in numbers.
As the COVID-19 pandemic surged through Florida and forced Miami-Dade County into lockdown, a lot of these crimes have notably decreased into the new year, presumably due to protective measures put in place to prevent further spreading of the virus.
But one specific type of crime has continued rising up above the rest despite the pandemic: larceny, which had over 3,000 reported crimes at the start of this year in Miami-Dade.
While homicides, forcible sex offenses, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, and motor vehicles thefts teeter behind, larceny has continued to take place through Miami-Dade County, with a 26.56% decrease since last year.
Within larceny, other crimes have also commonly been reported throughout the county, such as general theft, motor vehicle theft, shoplifting, pocket picking, purse snatching, coin machine theft, and building theft.
Between January through March 2020 and 2021, general theft has continued pushing through all other types of larceny crimes, with 2,727 reported crimes early into last year and 2,201 so far this year.
Comparing how most types of crimes reported has decreased since last year, there’s a visible dent in the numbers of violent and non-violent crimes as well.
Since early last year, both the violent and non-violent crimes have decreased immensely, with violent crimes dropping to 1,172 total cases reported and non-violent crimes dropping to 5,164 total cases reported. In total, violent crimes dropped by 10.60% and non-violent crimes dropped by 25.02%.
In all three of the above data visualizations made from the Miami-Dade Police Department’s published data, an overall decrease in most kinds of violent and non-violent crimes is noticeable, in addition to larceny crimes specifically being the most committed in Miami-Dade County.
Looking at how many Americans have suffered financially throughout the pandemic, a conclusion can be reached that many of those who committed these crimes might’ve done so out of necessity rather than for sport.
It’s also safe to assume that the common causes for the falls in most crimes are the sweeping lockdown measures put in place in Miami-Dade County, which likely prevented further crimes from taking place in the county and out into the rest of the state.
As of late, other news outlets across South Florida have also reported crimes changes from month-to-month, including as Local 10 News, WSVN and the Miami Herald. However, these changes in crimes from the start of last year and this year due to the pandemic have yet to be directly addressed by Florida and Miami-Dade County’s elected officials.
All data came from the Miami-Dade Police Department’s January to March 2020 and 2021 Crime Report.
