The Seattle Police Department has released crime data for Capitol Hill’s East Precinct for the first third of 2009 — the bottom line: Crime of most types is up significantly so far this year, driven by surges in theft and robbery.

Through April, the precinct has seen a 14% increase in robberies and a whopping 21% leap in larceny/theft incidents. The East Precinct spans Capitol Hill and the Central District areas.

The bar chart below provided by SPD illustrates how the totals are playing out for total crime in the area. The blue bars represent monthly total crime totals for 2008, orange, totals for 2009.

The 14% month over month jump in April 2009 from March is a big change from 2008’s trend and it apparently has the precinct concerned. Here is the analysis the SPD included in their East Precinct report (attached to this post): As the chart above indicates, the trend line in East has been variable with total Major Crimes declining in each of the first three months, compared with the previous month, before rising in April. This is a departure from 2008 when the trend was relatively flat.

The report also notes another unusual trend in the East Precinct stats — while other neighborhoods are seeing significant increases in burglaries, Capitol Hill and the Central District have seen a drop compared to last year. The reason? The SPD report cites the big push in 2008 to nail some large cases:

The reduction in burglaries in East Precinct is likely the result of investigations by East Precinct detectives into burglary cases in occupied premises in 2008 and early 2009. The suspect identified in several cases in 2008 had been featured on Western Washington’s Most Wanted and subsequent tips led to his arrest in March. In another case, serialized items from the burglary were located at a pawnshop, leading to the suspect’s identification and arrest. He was also wanted on burglary charges in Kitsap County.

So, 2009’s totals for burglary look better only because 2008’s totals were so high.

Another number CHS plans to investigate is the increase in rapes in the area compared to last year. This isn’t something we’ve seen covered by citywide media yet and even the specific incidents haven’t all made the CHS radar.

Anything else in the trends catch your attention or concern you? Leave a comment and we’ll dig deeper into the available datasets and find out what SPD can tell us about the stories behind the numbers.

(BTW, if you do review the PDF report attached, there is a typo in the data table SPD compiled for East Precinct cart theft totals in 2009. The table shows 334 vehicle thefts in February — other SPD reports say there were 33. 334 would be a new EP record!)