Missoula Crime Report: Record Number of Felony Cases in One Week

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The Missoula County Attorney’s Office filed 28 new felony complaints this week, which is by far the highest amount so far this year. According to County Attorney Matt Jennings, 12 cases this week involved some form of violence.

“Again, that is our record for 2024,” Jennings said. “We usually sit around four or five violent crimes a week and we were double that this week. We had six family violence or domestic violence cases. Those are a big priority in our office. We've got a whole team of folks that work on it. We had six non-family violence cases.”

Jennings said a lot of those involved some folks in our transient community.

“They are people that are well known to us and it's really discouraging sometimes when you see the same people pop up again and again,” Jennings said. “Sometimes our criminal justice system is challenged with an appropriate remedy that keeps them off the streets. We do what we can in our office, but we're only a small cog in a bigger criminal justice machine.”

In addition, there were four endangerment crimes and Jennings said those usually involve drinking and driving.

“We had a really scary incident with someone driving 100 MPH down the Interstate,” Jennings said. “Sadly, we get those about once a month and they're really terrifying because when accidents do happen, usually some people don't walk away from those. We had two property crimes, eight drug crimes, and two administrative crimes.”

Jennings thinks the Fourth of July weekend may have had an impact on the high number of crimes this week. He also said the current heatwave could be playing a factor.

“I don’t know if that makes a difference or not, but certainly the number of offenses this week is alarming,” Jennings said. “I do wonder if people are getting agitated from the heat or they're outside interacting with other folks because they don't have another place to go and are getting engaged in some of this criminal behavior. We're always trying to monitor why people do what they do. But when the files come across our desk, we make sure we hold them 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' full report below: