Overall crime has decreased “significantly” in Montgomery County, Maryland, according to crime statistics presented to the county council’s Public Safety Committee last week.
According to the data for the first three quarters of this year, the number of homicides and rapes has dropped and the number of car thefts, which accelerated wildly during the pandemic, has slowed, with the actual number of auto thefts down by 2%.
“There are some notable exceptions to that, and that includes commercial burglaries that are up by 7%, shoplifting up by 18%, and noncommercial robberies up by 15%” said Susan Farag, a county council legislative analyst.
Montgomery County Assistant Chief of Police Darren Francke told the members of the committee that while it was gratifying to see crime down in a number of categories, “Any chief will say we’re not going to take credit for the reductions, because they can swing the other way wildly.”
But Francke did credit the intensive effort to curb car thefts with having an impact on the number of cars stolen in the county.
Auto thefts jumped from 633 in 2019 to 2,301 last year, fueled in part, said Francke, by the ease with which thieves could manipulate a vulnerability in the Hyundai and Kia’s ignition systems, and start a car with nothing more than a USB cable.
Francke said police partnered with Hyundai and Kia dealers in two public education events. “I think those are paying dividends right now,” with the slight dip in car thefts, he said.
Another area that saw a positive trend was a drop in fatal opioid overdoses, from 79 in 2023 to 36 in 2024. Francke suggested that the widespread availability of Narcan, the lifesaving opioid overdose reversal drug, could be playing a role in that trend, although he said that deserves a closer look.
Farag told the committee, “Despite these meaningful crime reductions from last year, crime in general still remains elevated over pre-pandemic levels. Why does that matter?”
“That matters because in other parts of the country they’re starting to see crimes drop below pre-pandemic levels,” she added.
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