The previous year saw fewer theft-related crimes, but an increase in some violent offenses, according to the recently released annual report from the Turlock Police Department.

The data from the police department shows an overall decline of 5 percent in Part One crimes during 2017. The decline follows a 7 percent drop posted in 2016.

Part One crimes include homicides, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, larcenies and auto thefts. Turlock’s Part One crime rate for 2017 was at 37.9 per 1,000 residents. There were 2,762 Part One crimes reported in 2017, compared to 2,902 in 2016.

The homicide rate in 2017 was down 43 percent from the previous year, with four homicides reported. However, the homicide rate only reflects those murders that happened within the jurisdiction of the Turlock Police Department. In 2017, there were a total of 10 homicides that happened in the Turlock area, the majority of which happened within areas under the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department’s jurisdiction.

Violent offenses did increase in Turlock over 2017, according to the data. There were 26 reported rapes in the city, which is an increase of 13 percent when compared to 2016. This marks the second year in a row that the number of reported rapes has grown.

Turlock recorded 144 robberies over the span of 2017, which is up by 55 percent from the previous year, when 93 were recorded. The rate of robberies in 2017 was a dramatic increase over previous years, when it ranged from a low of 81 in 2013 and a previous high of 109 in 2014.

Aggravated assaults grew by 8 percent over the year, with 283 reported in 2017 and 264 reported in 2016. Data shows the number of aggravated assaults has steadily been increasing over the last five years.

The overall crime rate decline was largely driven by drops in theft-related cases, with the majority coming from drops in burglaries and auto thefts, according to the data.

There were 382 burglaries reported in 2017, down from 475 in 2016, resulting in a 20 percent drop. The rate of burglaries has been declining steadily over the last three years, according to the data.

The rate of larcenies fell by 2 percent, with 1,476 reported in 2017 and 1,503 reported the year prior. From 2015 the rate of larcenies has fallen significantly, partly because of Prop 47, which changed some previous felonies to misdemeanors if the value of the property is below $950.

Auto thefts dropped by 17 percent in 2017, with 446 reported in that time span compared to 537 in 2016.

Over the course of 2017, the police department had 48,976 dispatched calls and another 59,402 self-initiated calls. All the calls together resulted in 4,430 arrests in 2017, which is up slightly from the 4.411 made in 2016. Of the arrests made in 2017, 387 were of juveniles, which was an increase from the 240 reported the previous year. There were 4.043 adults arrested in 2017, down from 4.171 reported in 2016.

The majority of the dispatched calls at 58 percent, were for various reasons and reports. Of the categories, 6 percent of the calls were from people needing information from 911 operators and 3 percent were from people hanging up on 911 operators. Another 4 percent were reported a suspicious person and 3 percent were calling about verbal disturbances.

The majority of the self-initiated calls, at 38 percent, were for various reasons, while extra patrols made up 24 percent.

The Communications Center received 123,125 incoming telephone calls in 2017. This is a 23 percent increase from 2016 when 100,293 calls were received. In 2017, 31,448 calls (an average of 86 per day) were 911 calls. The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services has set a standard that 95 percent of 911 calls be answered within 15 seconds. Throughout the year, the Turlock Communications Center answered 99 percent of the incoming 911 calls within 12 seconds.

The police department recorded increases across the board for average response times to calls for service. The average response time for Priority One calls, considered the most urgent, was at 7:18, which is an increase of 2 percent from the previous year. Priority Two calls had an average response time of 13:40, followed by 44:09 for Priority Three calls. Priority Four calls, which have the least amount of urgency, had an average response time of 1:02:43.