News Graphic by Julie Riddle A pie chart displays the distribution of reported serious crime in Northeast Michigan in 2021 in this News graphic created from data shared by the Michigan State Police.

ALPENA — Unlocked doors and sticky fingers make larceny the most-reported serious crime in Northeast Michigan, but local reports of thefts and other crimes decreased dramatically in the past five years, according to data released earlier this month by the Michigan State Police.

While reported vehicle thefts and serious assaults increased regionwide in recent years, reports of burglaries, larceny, and retail thefts decreased in the Alpena area between 2017 and 2021, the recent report shows.

The state’s data reflects some of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the area — such as a reduction in store hours leading to fewer reports of shoplifting, said 1st Lt. John Grimshaw, commander of the Michigan State Police-Alpena Post.

Forces outside the control of law enforcement move crime trends, with everything from the availability of jobs to prices on store shelves driving people’s impulses to steal or commit other crimes, he said.

“Crime will go down. Some crime will go up,” Grimshaw said. “This is still one of the safest communities up here.”

Check out the interactive graphic below. Story continues below the graphic.

THEFT MOST-REPORTED CRIME

Theft crimes — larceny, burglary, retail fraud, and motor vehicle theft – made up more than three-quarters of reported Northeast Michigan crimes last year, as detailed in the state’s Criminal Justice Information Center annual report of serious crime in the state.

The report, a compilation of data submitted by police agencies, does not include drug crimes or traffic violations, including drunk driving arrests, and does not show how many of the year’s reported crimes resulted in arrests.

Violent crimes — murder, robbery, assault, and sex crimes — made up about a quarter of Alpena, Presque Isle, Montmorency, and Alcona county crimes last year.

In Alpena County, 86% of serious crimes reported to police last year involved theft.

With 67 larcenies and other thefts in 2021, Alcona County logged almost twice as many theft reports that year as Presque Isle and Montmorency counties combined.

LARCENY AND BURGLARY

In the past five years, the number of larcenies reported in the Alpena area decreased by more than half, from 444 in 2017 to 207 in 2021.

One person, or a group of people, prowling for unlocked vehicles or garages can inflate larceny numbers deceptively, with numerous thefts linked to a single crime spree, Grimshaw said.

Though not as prevalent as larcenies, burglaries also decreased markedly since 2017, from 149 in 2017 to 63 in the region last year.

Many of the burglaries reported in the Alpena area are connected to summer homes or hunting cabins left vacant for a season, reported when the owners return to find their property burgled, Grimshaw said.

Break-ins happen much less commonly in an occupied home, because, Grimshaw said, in a hunter-friendly region, “they could get shot.”

Check out the interactive graphic below. Story continues below the graphic.

SHOPLIFTING AND STOLEN CARS

Vehicle thefts in Alpena County increased over the past half-decade, with triple the number of thefts in 2020 and 2021 as were reported in 2017 and 2018.

The steep cost of used vehicles and lack of availability the past two years may have played a hand in that shift — and, Grimshaw said, by leaving keys in their vehicles, “owners are making it easy for them to steal.”

Retail fraud — a crime that made headlines earlier this year when shoplifting crime waves struck major retailers elsewhere — has decreased locally, from just more than 100 reported incidents in 2017 to about 50 in 2021.

While businesses don’t report all thefts to police — instead handling some crimes in-house by banning a customer from a store — the recent low number of retail thefts makes sense after Alpena’s big-box stores eliminated their overnight hours, when many thefts happen, Grimshaw said.

VIOLENT CRIME

At 42 sexual assaults reported in 2021, the region has remained mostly consistent in the number of such crimes reported for the past five years.

Assault reports increased by about 20% in 2019 and remained at that level the following two years. The region logged 61 felony assault reports in 2021.

Those numbers do not reflect all the phone calls and other reports to police that someone may have been assaulted, Grimshaw explained.

The Alpena Post received 213 reports of assault last year.

Officers look into each one, and only those determined to have happened and to meet the criteria as a felonious assault get included in reports to the state, Grimshaw said.

With the largest population in the area, Alpena County will always have some crime, but 40 felonious assaults in the county in a span of 365 days is, on the whole, not a bad ratio, he said.

“We’d love not to have them,” he said, “but people are people.”

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.