A review of crime in Shreveport for 2021

SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) - Three mass shootings before spring, a triple homicide last month and a rolling gun battle off Youree Drive in Sept. that took the life of a 13-year-old boy. Those are just a few of the violent gun crimes that made headlines in Shreveport during 2021.

As the year ends, it will go down as one of the deadliest in our city’s history.

The unprecedented spike in killings led Mayor Adrian Perkins to make a switch at the top of the Shreveport Police Department. He asked for Ben Raymond’s resignation as chief of police, after just two years on the job, and replaced him with 42-year police veteran Wayne Smith.

While that story may have garnered a great deal of press coverage, the biggest story on the crime beat this past year was the historic rise in violent crime. Most notable is an almost 30% spike in homicides compared to last year.

In 2020, Shreveport witnessed 66 unjustified killings. With two weeks left in 2021, the homicide total stands at 86, according to the figure provided by SPD.

Violent sex crimes are also up in Shreveport. In October, the year-to-year number of forcible rapes already jumped 24% based on crime comparisons published by SPD.

The 120 rapes recorded by that month’s end matched the overall total for 2020.

While aggravated assaults slightly dropped during the first ten months of 2021 (1,027 in 2021 versus 1,085 in 2020), armed robbery of people and businesses spiked over that same period looking at SPD reports.

2021 also saw a spike in property crimes, like purse snatching and auto theft. However, crimes against businesses, like shoplifting and theft, are down.

Many Shreveport residents hope 2022 will be a different story when it comes to the crime beat.

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