2019 TBI data shows decrease in reported crime across the state

JACKSON, Tenn. — The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation released their 2019 report for Crime in Tennessee and it has shown an overall decrease in reported crimes across the state.

Crime data is submitted through the TBI’s Tennessee Incident-Based Reporting System, which can show a better picture of how crimes are impacting several communities.

“Each law enforcement agency across the state is required by law to send in their data each and every month,” said TBI Public Information Officer Keli McAlister

The 2019 report has a breakdown on different crime categories. The findings show a decrease in the number of ‘Group A’ offenses, which are considered the more serious criminal incidents.

“There was just shy of 530,000 incidents of those crimes across the state, and we saw about a 5 percent decrease,” McAlister said. “We saw a decrease in murders, rapes, crimes that involve guns.”

Drug violations also showed a decrease of about 5.6 percent. However, offenses related to methamphetamine increased significantly.

“Meth offenses increased over the past three years, so it’s definitely something of concern and it’s been a significant increase, over 30 percent,” McAlister said.

It increased from 13,692 in 2017 to 18,086 in 2019. They say a big reason for that is due to the drug being imported internationally. The TBI’s Incident-Based Reporting System has allowed for more detailed crime reports and is being used as model for other states to submit their crime reports.

“Every state will have to do this by January 1st of 2021 to conform to this same type of system, this very specific system,” said McAlister. “We’ve actually helped 20 states implement their system.”

Local crime data can be found on the latest crime report at tn.gov/tbi