2006 U.S. Crime Statistics - mixed data

The Federal Bureau of Investigation released crime statistics data this week, for the previous year. This report was compiled with data from around 11,700 law enforcement agencies nationwide. Click here to view the entire report, but here are the highlights -

• Overall, a slight 1.3% increase in violent crimes in 2006. But this is 2nd straight annual increase
  
• Number of homicides in major metropolitan areas (those with more than 1M residents) increased by 6.7%
• Smaller cities saw their murders decrease by a collective 11.9%
• Violent crimes saw their numbers increase in every region except NorthEast, with the Western states seeing the largest jump, by 2.8%
• Property crimes decreased by 2.9% from 2005
• Burglaries, however, rose by a slight 3.3%, particularly in midsize cities
• The spike in robberies marked the highest increase in any category of crime surveyed in the FBI report
  

Overall, I think the figures are not really threatening or should raise any alerts for the nation. The numbers are as bad as the previous year, but at least not worse in most categories. So the respective departments and offices are doing a fair job in maintaining these numbers.