In a review of last year’s crime statistics, Beloit Police Chief David Zibolski offers his thanks to community members for their cooperation, and officers for their dedication to clearing cases. Although the overall number of reported crimes increased by 12% last year, Zibolski points out violent crimes went down 10%. He says when looking back even further to 2016, the violent crime rate is down 15-percent. The largest increase in property crimes came in the area of thefts, in particular motor vehicle thefts which almost doubled from the year before. Zibolski says fully half of these could have been prevented if the keys hadn’t been left in vehicles.
