REPORT: Crime Surges in Small Cities – Felonies Spike in Anchorage, Nashville, Albuquerque

New data released by Fox News Wednesday shows a spike in violent crime taking place in America’s mid-sized cities, including Anchorage, Alaska; Nashville, Tennessee; and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

From Fox News:

Crime has risen in major cities nationwide in recent years as many police departmentsfight staffing shortages, and critics blame some liberal district attorneys for loosening criminal punishments. 

But while the violent crime rates of major cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles repeatedly make headlines, such crime has also increased in some mid-sized cities that do not feature so prominently in national news.

Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city with a population of nearly 300,000 people, spends much of its winter days engulfed in darkness. The city is also steeped in crime problems, continuously ranking among the top 10 most violent cities in the U.S.

Despite a downward trend from 2019 to 2021 in emergency calls reporting assaults, that number climbed again from 2,404 during the first three quarters of 2021 to 2,574 during the same period in 2022, according to statistics from the Anchorage Police Department.

Calls reporting sexual assault dipped from 460 to 442, and while the 352 robbery calls surpassed the 311 during the first three quarters of 2021, they did not meet the 423 recorded both in 2020 and 2019.