Serious crime in Durango this January stayed on par with activity from January 2022, according to a city news release.

There were 55 serious (Part I) offenses committed in 2023 and 54 in January of 2022, according to a statistical analysis released by the Durango Police Department. Part I offenses include homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft and arson.

“And of those Part I offenses that are measured, not every single one of those resulted in an arrest,” said Tessa Reinhart, DPD’s crime analyst. “A lot of them are cold, meaning they happened after the fact. DPD may not get a call until the next day or week or month and therefore it may take more time to investigate and track down leads to find a suspect and make an arrest.”

Aggravated assaults did increase from two in January 2022 to nine this past month. One of those assaults was on a police officer and another was on a security staff member at Mercy Hospital.

Three vehicles were stolen last month – a 2013 Honda Civic, a 125 cc scooter and a 2007 Nissan Frontier truck – but all were recovered. Durango police have made vehicle theft a top priority and are giving out free steering-wheel locks in an effort to curb the crime. None of the three vehicles were listed on the “most stolen” vehicles in Colorado list put out by the DPD.

There was a sharp increase in the number of traffic crashes, 61 this January, compared with 27 last year, which DPD attributes to heavy snowfall this year. That’s a 126% increase, Reinhart said.

Theft was down about 20% when compared to January 2022. Ten of the 36 reported were specifically shoplifting incidents. Shoplifting was reported at Walmart, Home Depot, Browns Shoe Fit, Speedway and Marathon.

Overall, Durango crime statistics broken down for this January are as follows: Total calls 3,725, reports written 459, CORE Team calls 71, DUI arrests 19, total arrests 171, traffic crashes 61, traffic citations 214 and calls for service 1,498.

To view the annual crime statistics reports for 2022 and January 2023 go to https://www.durangogov.org/426/Crime-Statistics.

gjaros@durangoherald.com