Years Governor John Engler announced today that the number of reported violent crimes in Michigan fell by 4.1 percent in 1994, according to an annual statistical report compiled by the Michigan State Police. The decrease includes a murder total that is the lowest in the state since 1984 and a rape total that is the lowest since 1988. Statewide, the total number of murders fell from 922 to 909, rapes from 7,335 to 6,432, robberies from 22,261 to 21,440 and aggravated assaults from 43,659 to 42,391. The rape total dropped 12.3 percent.
People gain in freedom and peace, and their lives are improved.
This is the direction we must continue for our state. Statewide, total property crimes, consisting of burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft, decreased from 1993 by 1.3 percent. That included a drop in reported burglaries, from 90,878 to 88,172, and in larcenies, from 279,515 to 273,096. Motor vehicle thefts, one of only a few categories where the number of crimes increased, rose from 56,670 to 60,216. In 1994, several categories, including murder, burglary, larceny, arson, liquor laws and driving under the influence, featured their lowest totals in more than a decade.