Public Safety

Crime rates

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension's reporting standards changed in 2021. The old reporting system ranked crimes in order of severity and only accepted the most severe crime within a criminal incident. Because of this, the system would not reflect all the crimes committed in an incident.

The new reporting standard is more comprehensive. Agencies can collect data on as many as 10 criminal offenses per incident. This gives a more accurate total of reported crimes.

With this new reporting approach, it is expected to see higher crime numbers than in previous years.

Group A crimes include murder, rape, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, arson, human trafficking, counterfeiting and forgery, embezzlement, sex offenses, stolen property, prostitution, gambling, vandalism, weapons, and narcotics.

Group B crimes include family offenses – non-violent, DUI, liquor laws, disorderly conduct,  and all other offenses.

Due to this change, the 2021 Dakota County group B data was not available at the time of reporting.

The figures are rates per 1,000 residents​​​.

Part I crimes include murder, rape, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, arson and human trafficking.

Part II crimes include other assaults, forgery and ​counterfeiting, embezzlement, stolen property, vandalism, weapons, prostitution, other sex offenses, narcotics, gambling, family/children crime, DUI, liquor laws, disorderly conduct, and other offenses.

The figures are rates per 1,000 residents.