Crime

Before my wife and I moved to Bourbon County, we reviewed the crime statistics to make sure it was safe. After moving, we were surprised to hear rumors about the high crime rate in the county. What are the latest crime statistics in the county? Are the rumors true? Let’s take a look.

	Crimes per 1,000 residents
	2018			2019
County	Violent	Property	Total	Violent	Property	Total
Allen	3.0	23.9	26.9	4.1	22.0	26.1
Anderson	2.2	15.2	17.4	2.0	13.4	15.4
Bourbon	4.4	21.8	26.2	3.8	9.2	13.0
Cherokee	3.0	22.7	25.7	2.6	19.0	21.6
Crawford	3.1	29.6	32.7	3.3	36.5	39.8
Labette	6.0	22.1	28.1	4.4	23.3	27.7
Linn	0.6	5.2	5.8	2.5	11.1	13.6
Montgomery	4.4	38.7	43.1	5.6	31.0	36.6
Neosho	1.6	6.5	8.1	0.7	2.8	3.5
Kansas	4.2	27.2	31.4	4.3	25.0	29.3

The most populous county in SEK, Crawford, had the highest crime index at 39.8 crimes per 1,000 people in 2019. Bourbon County compares favorably with a crime index of almost one-third of the county to the south, but our violent crime rate was higher than Crawford County.

In 2019, Montgomery County had the highest violent crime rate in the region at 5.6, followed by Labette at 4.4. Who had the lowest violent crime rate in SEK? Neosho County at 0.7; in fact, Neosho County was by far the safest county in SEK in 2019 with a crime index of just 3.5, down from 6.5 in 2018. Bourbon County had a dramatic drop in the property crime rate between 2018 and 2019.

Property crimes were down for the whole state, falling to 25.0 in 2019 from 27.2 the previous year; however, violent crime was up one decimal point to 4.3, yielding a state crime index of 29.3. The lowest crime county in Kansas? Wallace County reported zero crimes in 2019. Wyandotte County had the highest crime index at 47.0.

I have been a part of welcoming two new families to the area in 2021, both of whom have experienced property crimes in their short tenure here; one of which has had three occasions to call the police already. As one might expect, they are questioning their decision to move here. Continued investment in public safety is critical if we want to continue welcoming newcomers here. If we want to save money in policing, look at efficiencies by sharing services, not reducing our commitment to public safety. Ask yourself, “Would I rather drive to work on a bumpy street, or have a greater risk of experiencing a crime while I am there?”

Rumors to the contrary, crime statistics are not a major deterrent to those considering relocating to Bourbon County; however, we need to maintain our commitment to public safety. This factor is critical to our ongoing economic development efforts.