Staff - March 14, 2025

Every year municipalities, states and the nation gather and publish reports on the previous year's crimes, arrests and other statistics. They compare them to past years and report increases and decreases and trends in crime. The Crime in South Dakota 2024 publication is a 26 page document which we will give a summary and some highlights from. A pdf of the report and more of the collected data can be accessed on the Attorney General’s NIBRS website at sdcrime.nibrs.com.

National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) is what the city, county and state law enforcement agencies use for crime reporting. Their data can be entered directly into NIBRS's web-based system or exported from the agency's third party records management system and sent to the Criminal Statistical Analysis Center (SAC) on a monthly basis who then imports these into the NIBRS system. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) receives all the data collected by NIBRS to compile a national crime report for the United States. The FBI's reports do contain estimations of non-reported data and might not be comparable. The FBI also directly collects data from the Indian Reservations which are not included in the state's data.

The NIBRS system is based on incidents, collecting data on individual incidents and arrests directly related. This incident-based reporting system is more detailed than other systems like the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) system and collects data on more crime categories. They collect incident report data from 53 specific crimes (Group A offenses) and arrest report data from 10 other crimes (Group B offenses).

All agencies involved do their best to effectively report crime because this type of statistical analysis is crucial for law enforcement. But be aware that the numbers reported are only as accurate as the data collected and the population estimates. Not all crimes are reported, arrests are not always made, and data might not always be submitted.

Here is Attorney General Jackley's note and a summary from the publication:

"The Crime in South Dakota publication is a compilation of the efforts of law enforcement statewide. This publication reflects the hard work and dedication that reporting agencies have put forth to accurately report crime in their jurisdictions. Statewide participation is essential because effective law enforcement relies upon accurate crime statistics to identify trends in criminal activity."

SOUTH DAKOTA CRIME SUMMARY

2024 In 2024, state and local law enforcement agencies reported a total of 67,959 offenses. This represents a 1.21% increase from the year prior.

Group "A" Offenses totaled 47,070 compared to 45,905 offenses reported in 2023. This represents a difference of 1,165 or 2.53% increase.

Group "B" Offenses totaled 20,888 compared to 21,240 offenses reported in 2023. This represents a difference of 352 or 1.65% decrease.

Murder increased by 72%; there were 31 homicides reported in 2024, as compared to 18 homicides reported in 2023.

Forcible Rape increased by 24 or 7.05%. There were 364 forcible rapes reported in 2024, compared to 340 reported in 2023.

There was a total of 1,777 burglaries reported in 2024. This is a 2.52% decrease from 2023 where 1,823 were reported. Thirty-Three (32.86%) percent of burglaries reported in 2024 were forced entry (584).

In 2024, juvenile arrestees accounted for 10.15% (3,776) of the total arrests (37,217), down from 3,994 in 2023, a drop of 5.45%.

The number of reported arrests in 2024 for DUI was 5,493. This represents an increase of 81 arrests or 1.49% from the total of 5,412 reported in 2023.

In 2024, 6,751 total drug offenses were reported compared to 6,315 reported in 2023, an increase of 6.9%.

PROFILE OF REPORTED CRIMES - 2024

The publication includes counts for the NIBRS reported crimes of Murder and Non-Negligent Manslaughter, Rape, Robbery, and Aggravated Assault which are categorized as violent crimes or crimes against persons. Burglary, Larceny-Theft, Motor-Vehicle Theft, and Arson are categorized as serious property crimes. These violent and property crimes are regarded as an Index Crime because of their seriousness, frequency of occurrence and likelihood of being reported. Drug/Narcotic and Drug Equipment Violations are also included and are categorized as other crime. All remaining crimes that fall under Group A and Group B offenses can be accessed on the Attorney General’s NIBRS website at sdcrime.nibrs.com.

The following table is a profile of reported crimes for 2024 in South Dakota. This table includes calculated crime rates per 100,000 people. The use of crime rates in making comparisons in crime trends helps to minimize problems with crime data interpretation. However, readers are cautioned that crime rates cited are reliable indications of crime only to the extent that population estimates are accurate, that victims report crimes and NIBRS data is submitted to SD ATG DCI by law enforcement agencies.

From this table you can see that larceny-theft is SD's most common crime accounting for about 40% of the crimes committed and violent crimes account for less than 10% of the crime total.

SOUTH DAKOTA’S LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL - 2024

Each year, law enforcement agencies are requested to complete a survey for the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting program on the number of law enforcement personnel employed. The survey requests the number be broken down by sworn and civilian employees as well as by sex.

The Publication also includes a tribute to:
• Chief Deputy Ken M. Prorok
• Moody County Sheriff’s Office
• End of Watch: Friday, February 2nd, 2024

Chief Deputy Ken Prorok was killed in the line of duty on February 2nd, 2024, after being struck by a fleeing car while deploying spike strips during a criminal pursuit. Ken began his law enforcement career at the Moody County Sheriff’s Office as a dispatcher eventually becoming Deputy Sheriff of Moody County and continued his service for 8 years.

ARREST DATA

The number of persons arrested are compiled from NIBRS reports submitted monthly by local law enforcement agencies. Below is some of the publications info of arrestees broken down by age, sex and race for 2024 for the following crimes.

Persons Arrested by Age in 2024

Looks like you need to watch out for those troublesome 20-40 year olds.

Persons Arrested by Sex in 2024

No surprise here, most of the people arrested were male.

Males constituted approximately:
• 78% of arrests for Violent Crime
• 66% of arrests for Property Crime
• 63% of arrests for Other Crime
• 65% of arrests for Total Crime

Persons Arrested by Race in 2024

Again, no surprise here for our state, most of the people arrested were White or American Indian.

Whites constituted approximately:
• 44% of arrests for Violent Crime
• 47% of arrests for Property Crime
• 44% of arrests for Other Crime
• 44% of arrests for Total Crime

American Indian constituted approximately:
• 35% of arrests for Violent Crime
• 37% of arrests for Property Crime
• 24% of arrests for Other Crime
• 27% of arrests for Total Crime

CRIME AND ARREST COMPARISONS

The table shows the number of incidents and arrests reported each year, based upon UCR criteria, between 2020 and 2023 for each of the ten crimes. While comparisons of arrests to crimes reported could be useful measurements of law enforcement activity, caution must be exercised. Arrests reported in one year may be incidents that occurred in the same year or earlier. More than one individual can be arrested for a crime or be arrested more than once during a given year. Therefore, arrest statistics reflect the number of arrests made, rather than the number of crimes solved or the number of different persons taken into custody.

RELATIONSHIP OF VICTIM TO OFFENDER

They say that crimes are often committed by people you know or family, this data seems to support that theory. In SD it appears you are most likely to be murdered, kidnapped, raped or assaulted by your boyfriend/girlfriend or an acquaintance. Assault is a little more diverse with a stranger, someone known to you or your spouse being the next fairly likely person to be the offender.

From this cursory review of the Crime in South Dakota publication it seems that crime in SD is relatively stable. Overall in the different categories crime has gone up a few percentage points on average. The linked Crime in South Dakota publication has a more detailed summary report and all the NIBRS statistical reports can be accessed at sdcrime.nibrs.com. These are continually being updated as law enforcement agencies report their data.

Stay safe.