Missoula Crime Report: Family Violence Cases Rise Sharply

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The Missoula County Attorney’s Office filed 20 new felony complaints this week, which is nine more than last week and higher than the weekly average. According to County Attorney Matt Jennings, there were a lot of violent crimes this week. 

“We had 10 violent crimes against persons and we also had four endangerment crimes,” Jennings said. “Those usually involve driving under the influence and really unsafe driving behavior. We had no property crimes and five drug crimes. Our drug offenses have been trending up a little bit recently. That's not that there was a lull in drug activity and there's more now, but there's certain behavior that people engage in that draws the attention of law enforcement and then they often have drugs on them. That's a trend that we're going to keep watching.” 

Jenning said eight of the ten violent crimes this week involved family violence or strangulation. 

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“Some of these were abuse of children, some were spouses, and then we had two sexual crimes this week,” Jennings said. “Sadly, both of those were against children and we take those extremely seriously, frankly just one step down below homicide for us.” 

When they came into the office on Tuesday morning this week, Jennings said 16 people were in jail from the long weekend. 

“Some of those were misdemeanor DUIs and they don't come on the list that I tell you about every Friday, but about 10 of them were felonies that were committed,” Jennings said. “Almost half of the offenses just get committed over a weekend and that's pretty typical.” 

READ MORE: Missoula News - Crime Reports

In the 12 years Jennings has been here, he’s been trying to figure out trends to look out for. 

“Seasons, weather, full moons, rain, and snow, they absolutely influence criminal activity, but I can't necessarily tell you which way it goes,” Jennings said. “We know that when there are big swings in weather or the days are getting shorter, that we do see some changes, but they can be dramatic both ways. Crimes really ebb and flow. Last week we only filed 11 felony complaints and this week is 20. Why did we have almost 100% increase? I am not totally sure.” 

The Missoula County Attorney’s Office provides a weekly crime report every Friday morning at 9:00 on Talk Back.