STEUBENVILLE — Crime in Steubenville was down in six of eight categories the FBI tracks in its Uniform Crime Report, City Manager Jim Mavromatis reports.

Mavromatis said fewer rapes, burglaries, robberies, thefts, shots fired and assaults were reported in 2021 compared to the year before. The number of homicides and arsons did not change year-over-year.

“It’s extremely good news, with everything going on in our nation this past year,” Mavromatis said. “Out of our eight categories, six were lower than (2019) and two were even.”

Police responded to 12,964 calls last year — that number was up from 2020, when the department logged 12,865 calls for assistance, but substantially less than the 15,731 calls they handled in 2019. Officers responded to 135 suspected drug overdoses, 12 of them fatal; conducted 71 terry stops, 10 vehicle pursuits, 440 searches and 552 seizures.

Documented uses of force totaled 62, but Mavromatis pointed out that’s a broad label.

“If we have to chase someone down and tackle them, that’s a use of force so we document it,” he said.

• Homicides: Last year police investigated two murders, both on the hilltops. In 2020, officers investigated two murders (one downtown, one on the hilltop), and in 2019 there were three homicides (two downtown, one on the hill).

• Rapes/sex offenses: Eight rapes were reported last year — five downtown, one on the hill and two in the West End. That compares to nine in 2020 (two downtown, four on the hilltops and three in the West End) and eight in 2019 (six downtown and two on the hill).

• Burglaries: 52 were reported in 2021, compared to 66 in 2020 and 59 in 2019.

• Robberies: Five were reported in 2021, compared to 10 in all of 2020 and 14 in 2019.

• Thefts: 530 were investigated, a steep decline from the 601 reported in 2020 and the 736 reported in 2919.

• Arsons: Three were investigated last year (two downtown, one on the hilltop). That’s unchanged from 2020, and down two from 2019.

• Assaults: 276 were investigated in 2021, down from the 376 reported in 2020 and 326 reported in 2019.

In addition, city police investigated 85 reports of shots fired last year — down from 96 in 2020. Evidence of shots fired was found in 24 cases last year — down from 44 in 2020.

Also, 29 thefts from autos were reported in 2021, compared to 33 in 2020 and 49 in 2019.

“To give you an idea what our officers deal with, arrests made (last year) were 1,452 — these were actual arrests,” Mavromatis said. That’s up significantly from 2020, when 1,051 arrests were logged.

The department also:

• Made 844 traffic stops in 2021, issuing 431 citations and 413 warnings.

• Investigated 826 traffic accidents, including 46 involving injuries; 174 hit-and-runs and 161 on private property.

“We have a pretty safe city, that’s a compliment to all the officers,” Mavromatis said. “One thing you have to look at … this is a Tri-State Area. We may be (a city of) 18,000, but we have a lot of people coming here … they’re coming in from West Virginia, Pennsylvania. It does increase our population.”