MERIDIAN, Idaho — Idaho's biggest cities aren't the places where you're most likely to become a victim of violent crime, at least according to a new Idaho State Police online data dashboard on crime in Idaho.
A close look at the information on the dashboard shows there's an important distinction to be made between the number of crimes that occur and the "crime rate" often mentioned in stories about crime trends.
The state's two most populous counties -- Ada and Canyon -- were at or near the statewide average in 2020 when it comes to the rate of homicides, assaults, sexual offenses and other crimes classified as "crimes against persons." However, because of population differences, the number of victims was much higher than in many counties that had higher crime rates.
Idaho State Police said in a news release this week that the new dashboard allows data collected from local and statewide Idaho agencies between 2005 and 2020 to be viewed in one place, and allows members of the general public to explore much of the data housed in the state's repository of law enforcement data on criminal incidents -- the same data behind the annual Crime in Idaho reports.
As of Thursday, Dec. 2, the dashboard was still under construction -- with data available on crimes against persons and drug and alcohol offenses, but not for crimes classified as "crimes against property" or "crimes against society." Sections with topical data on sexual violence and intimate-partner violence are also still in the works.
As previously reported, Idaho's overall crime rate has dropped over the past 15 years, according to ISP. The new dashboard also has county-by-county breakdowns on crime rates, numbers of victims or arrestees, and characteristics of the victims.
The rate of crimes against persons dropped from the 2005 rate of 14.253 per 1,000 population to 9.954 per 1,000 in 2020. The actual numbers of victims dropped, too -- from 20,330 in 2005 to 17,766 in 2020.
A drop in the crime rate doesn't necessarily mean a drop in the number of crimes committed. For example, in 2013, 2014 and 2015, the rates of crimes against persons were higher than the 2020 rate, but the database shows fewer victims each of those years. Also, the rate of crimes against persons increased in 2016 compared to 2015, but remained lower than the rate for 2005.
Of the 17,766 victims of crimes against persons in 2020, nearly 72% knew the offender in some way, and nearly 42% of victims were either family or an intimate partner.
The three Idaho counties with the highest rates of crimes against persons in 2020 were Twin Falls (15.73 per 1,000; 1,369 total victims), Bannock (15.175 per 1,000; 1,351 victims) and Shoshone (13.854 per 1,000; 180 victims).
Madison County had the lowest rate of crimes against persons -- 2.347 per 1,000 (95 victims).
As for Idaho's two most-populous counties, Canyon County had the 11th-highest rate -- 10.275 per 1,000, and 2,431 victims. Ada County had Idaho's 13th-highest rate of crimes against persons -- 9.615 per 1,000 -- but the highest number of victims, 4,771. Ada County's population of nearly 495,000 makes up more than a quarter of the state's population. Canyon County has about 231,000 people, according to the 2020 census.
The statewide rate of drug and alcohol offenses dropped from just over 16 per 1,000 (with 22,840 people arrested) in 2005 to 11.354 per 1,000 (20,264 arrested) in 2020.
Counties with the highest rates of drug and alcohol offenses tended to have smaller populations.
While only 39 arrests were reported in Clark County, the rate there was the state's highest -- 46.595 per 1,000 population. Caribou and Shoshone counties, with 151 and 262 arrests, respectively, had the second- and third-highest rates -- a little more than 20 per 1,000 population.
Canyon County, with 2,743 people arrested and a rate of 11.594 per 1,000, had the 12th-highest rate. In Ada County, people were arrested, but the rate was 7.697 per 1,000 -- the 25th-highest out of Idaho's 44 counties.
More than 1,000 people were arrested for drug or alcohol offenses in 2020 in Twin Falls County, which had the 11th-highest rate in that crime category -- 11.685 per 1,000 population.
Two of Idaho's more tourism-oriented counties have some of the highest rates of driving under the influence. The highest rate was in Blaine County, with 7.438 arrests per 1,000 population in 2020 (174 total DUI arrests). Valley County had the third-highest DUI arrest rate, with 5.822 per 1,000 (74 total DUI arrests).
The second-highest DUI rate for 2020 was in Clark County, the state's least-populated county with 790. Just five people were arrested, but the rate was 5.974 per 1,000.
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