Cheers to the Decatur Police Department for putting out this informative chart, which not only compares the 2009 crime rate to previous years, but also the percentage of cases cleared, and a breakout of “crimes against persons” vs. “crimes against property”.

For all the talk surrounding crimes against property this past year (recap: “It was the economy!” “No it wasn’t!”), it’s interesting to see a decline in that column vs. 2008.  Not so good that crimes against persons increased, but nice to see that DPD increased it’s cleared rate in that category by 14 whole points!