BOISE, Idaho — The City of Boise continues to mourn the loss of two people who were shot and killed on Oct. 25 at the Boise Towne Square mall. That same week, Boise Police officers were involved in a shooting in the downtown area, and the Ada County Sheriff's Office was involved in an armed standoff near the Boise Airport.
The traumatic events raised questions about safety in the City of Boise, including this one: with the growth in recent years, is Boise changing to a less safe environment?
KTVB spoke with Boise Police Chief Ryan Lee for his perspective on crime statistics and community perception. A popular question directed at Boise Police: is this the Boise that we live in now, or was it one bad week?
"I think the easy answer is, it was one bad week," Lee said. "The reality of the matter is if you sit down you look at the crime stats, crime in general, downward trajectory, but particularly violent crimes, that type of crime that grabs our attention it shocks us, that's on a downward trend... If I compare it to 2017, so just rewind the clock five years, we're down well over 1000 violent crime reported incidences year to date. If I compare this year with 2017, we're down every year; it's still declining. Overall crime (rate) is good when I compare us to comparable cities -- cities like Salt Lake City, Spokane, Reno -- places that many of us have probably visited or have family. Our crime rate is much better than the crime rate in any of those cities."
KTVB went in-depth with Chief Lee on more data, community perception, and moving forward. Check out the video for Chief Lee's thoughts.
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