By Adam Pagnucco.
As stated in our summary data, property crime in MoCo has been rising slowly but steadily in the last four years. In 2018, there were 21,652 property crime reports in the county’s database. They rose in each succeeding year to 24,366 in 2022 at this writing. This part looks at the geography of property crime.
First, let’s look at average property crime rates over the six year time period by region and town. (I use a similar methodology here as I used for election analysis.)
Generally speaking, property crime rates were higher in Downcounty than in the rest of the county. Of the seven towns with the highest rates of property crime, all but two (Germantown and Wheaton) were in Downcounty. Areas with the lowest rates of property crime tended to be in Potomac and in rural areas.
Now let’s look at the change in property crimes by region.
Property crime in Downcounty not only has a higher rate than elsewhere – it has also been rising the most. Downcounty property crime rose 15% from 2017 through 2022. Property crime in the other two regions has risen in the last couple years but is equal to or lower than in 2017.
The four Downcounty communities below – Downtown Silver Spring, Bethesda, Takoma Park and Chevy Chase – have all seen substantial rises in property crime since 2017.
In contrast, the four communities below – Rockville, Gaithersburg, Germantown and Silver Spring East County – have not seen an upward trend in property crime. In Germantown, property crime fell by 11% between 2017 and 2022.
All parts of the county have property crime. But the data above shows that Downcounty stands out due to its higher rates and substantial increases in property crime. That applies to both the west side (Bethesda and Chevy Chase) and the east side (Downtown Silver Spring and Takoma Park) despite their demographic differences. Downtown Silver Spring also stands out for its high rate and high growth of violent crime.
Next, we will look at demographics.