Missoula Crime Report: Third Lowest Amount of Cases This Year

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The Missoula County Attorney’s Office filed 12 new felony complaints this week, which is four less than last week and lower than the weekly average. According to County Attorney Matt Jennings, that’s the third lowest amount they have had this year. 

“Unfortunately, about seven of those were violent crimes this week and that is a little bit high,” Jennings said. “I keep breaking these down every week because we see these patterns and try to track whether there's a trend. To account for that, we actually added a sixth special victim unit prosecutor to our office just this last month.” 

If you go back 10 years ago, Jennings said they didn’t have any dedicated prosecutors who were only working on sex offenses or domestic violence.  

“Now almost half of our prosecutors are dedicated to either domestic violence, sexual abuse, or crimes against children,” Jennings said. “Those are always a focus in our office. They have a reduced caseload, they have specialized training, and they make sure that they're providing the services to victims that they need as they navigate a complicated criminal justice process.” 

This week, Jennings said there was only one family violence offense, but there were four sex crimes, which is higher than normal. Jennings added that they are always looking for trends and how to combat them.  

“A couple of years ago, we were having a big explosion in property crimes and a lot of felony DUIs, meaning four or more,” Jennings said. “So we adjusted some of our practices to take those really seriously and to make sure that people weren't falling through the cracks. We are seeing a little bit of a drop off in some of the property crime epidemic that was going in 2021 and through some of last year.” 

Jennings said they are going to keep tracking those trends and will hold offenders accountable. The Missoula County Attorney’s Office provides a weekly crime report every Friday morning at 9:00 on Talk Back. You can listen to Jennings’s full report below: