Police Statistics From July Show What Crimes Affect Tulsans Most

The crime stats for Tulsa for just last month are 145 pages long, double spaced. And that may not be all of them, since some reports are still being processed.

We went through all the numbers to see which crimes affect the most citizens.

Three people were murdered in Tulsa in July, and while it is always tragic when someone loses their life, this isn't the crime that personally affected most citizens. In July: 30 rapes were reported, 91 robberies (about half of those involving a gun), and 214 people reported to police they were assaulted. Sixty-five of those assault cases involved a gun and 33 involved knives. One victim was a police officer.

And, as traumatic, devastating and violent as those crimes are, what affects more citizens than anything else each month, are property crimes--having someone steal what we've worked so hard to have.

Nearly 600 burglaries were reported. Nearly 500 of those were at someone's home and, by far, more of those happened during the day than at night.

Last month in Tulsa, nearly 207 people reported their vehicle stolen. Trucks are among the most popular vehicle to steal and police are seeing an increase in older model vehicles being taken. One reason is because they don't have the modern anti-theft devices. The other reason is if a vehicle is older than 10 years, you don't have to have the title in order to sell it for scrap.

7/26/2012 Related Story: Tulsa Police: Vehicle Burglaries Happen More Often During Summer

But what affected the most citizens in July and most months was larcenies, with nearly 1,100 reported. A ton of those were shoplifting cases, but 429 people had their cars broken into.

Police say it's very common for this to happen at parks, where people park their car to take a walk or exercise. They recommend you don't leave anything of value in your car, even in the trunk, as thieves have been breaking a window to pop the trunk release.

About 30 people had their bicycles stolen last month.

Police say the best way to protect your property is to lock it up and keep it out of sight, but even that doesn't do the trick all the time.

When compared to July of last year, we are a few up in some categories and down in others, but overall, the statistics were about the same.