Violent crime in Aurora has decreased in the last year, as many crime statistics that saw spikes during the COVID-19 pandemic have settled back down, Aurora police officials said.

Aurora police have continued to see a decline in murders in the city, with 11 killings in 2020, six in 2021 and five in 2022, according to numbers obtained by The Beacon-News.

Police said four of the killings last year appear to be domestic-related and one seems to be a gang-related homicide, a trend Aurora Police Chief Keith Cross said is quite different than what the department was used to in the past with most deaths driven by gang-related violence instead of domestic problems.

Domestic-related incidents are now driving a lot of calls to police because of several variables, police officials said.

“I think with more people working remotely and are home together more, and during COVID we saw an uptick in domestics, with people confined to their home, so I think that relates to the increase,” Deputy Chief Matt Thomas said.

While one killing is too much, Cross said for a city of Aurora’s population, the numbers are on a good trajectory.

Aurora did see a 20% increase in shootings in the past year, according to the police data. In 2021 there were 105 shootings in the city with 126 shootings in 2022.

Police were expecting the increase though, and do not feel the actual number of shootings has increased, but instead, the reporting of shootings has went up because of new technology the department initiated in July of 2022.

The ShotSpotter technology system now being used in Aurora spots gunfire quickly and helps police detect where shots were fired to accelerate their response time to shootings, officials said.

“If you look nationally, shootings are only 20% of the time called into the police, so around 80% of the shootings are not getting called in,” Cross said. “With this new technology, that number rises considerably.”

Cross said the technology allows officers to go out more quickly to where a shooting has occurred and potentially catch someone.

“A very small percentage of people are committing these shootings, so if we can catch the small percentage and take them off the streets, our shootings should continue to go down,” Thomas said.

According to the statistics from police, the biggest decrease in crime in Aurora involved aggravated assault and batteries, which according to the numbers decreased by 54% from 513 in 2021 to 236 in 2022.

Aggravated assault and batteries increased significantly during the pandemic, previously sitting at 356 in 2019 and jumping to 502 in 2020. The rate hovered at 513 in 2021 before going back down in 2022.

Cross said part of the reason for the decline in assault and battery cases stems from the department’s ability to get back into the community post-pandemic and build better bridges with residents.

“Successful prosecution of the people we have caught doing those things has also made an impact,” Cross said. “I know our officers are out there building trust with people so they are willing to share information with us and willing to testify when they need to in order to improve our chances at a successful prosecution.”

Other areas of crime seeing decreases in 2022 included thefts, which were down 19.7%; arson, which decreased by 23.5%; and sexual crimes and assaults, which were down 23.6%, according to the police data.

Meanwhile, burglaries in the city increased by 14.9% from 134 in 2021 to 154 in 2022.

Officers took in more firearms with 235 handguns, 17 shotguns and 23 rifles taken in 2022, a 6.6% increase over 2021, police said. According to Cross, there are more handguns on the street now compared to four or five years ago.

The number of juveniles who were arrested in Aurora went up from 258 in 2021 to 340 in 2022, a 31% increase, data shows.

Traffic crashes in Aurora, which dropped significantly during the height of the COVID‐19 pandemic, have been steadily increasing. Crashes without injuries increased by 9.7% in 2022, and total crashes increased by 4.8% during that time, according to the data.

Overall, Cross believes the increased number of officers patrolling the city has helped drive down the rate of violent crime in Aurora. The department now has the largest number of officers in its history with 310.

Cross said the community also deserves its share of the credit for the decrease in violent crime in Aurora.

“The numbers are what they are because of a collaboration of officers doing their job, building relationships and being proactive,” Cross said. “The community’s willingness to help us police the community and do what’s necessary to keep the community safe also helps.

“As long as we continue to move in that direction, Aurora is going to be a safer place,” he said.

mejones@chicagotribune.com