Tresa Baldas

Detroit Free Press

For the first time in two years, the nation saw an increase in violent crime last year, but Detroit managed to buck the trend with a drop in murders, rapes and assaults, according to new data released by the FBI.

Despite the improvement, however, Detroit is still among the most violent large cities in America, surpassed only by St. Louis, with the second highest violent crime rate among cities with more than 100,000 residents. Detroit also has the third highest homicide rate in the country for cities of that same size, trailing St. Louis and Baltimore.

But the FBI's numbers do show progress for Detroit.

While the nation saw violent crime go up almost 4% in 2015 from the year before, Detroit saw a 13% drop in violent crimes, which fell from 13,616 to 11,846 during the same time period.

Homicides in Detroit dropped from 299 to 295.

Rapes dropped from 557 to 530.

Aggravated assaults dropped from 9,191 to 7,564.

"We're happy, but it's nothing to brag about. One shooting is still too many. One homicide is still too many," said Assistant Police Chief Steve Dolunt. "Are we pleased with what we're seeing? Yeah. We've had a downward trend. But I tell you, the community has helped us out a lot ... The community is working with us more. They trust us more."

After three decades of working for the Detroit Police Department, Dolunt said: "It's a good feeling. After 31 years, it's a good feeling."

But there's still plenty left to do, Dolunt said, noting homicides are up slightly this year. As of Monday, the city had seen 221 homicides, five more than it had seen at this time last year, or a 2% increase, he said.

Other crimes, however, are down for the year. According to Dolunt, carjackings in Detroit are down 38% compared to last year; non-fatal shootings are down 10%, robberies are down 14% and aggravated assaults are down 4%.

But the numbers are still grim. Detroit's violent crime and homicide rates sill far outpace those of their metropolitan counterparts. For example, Detroit's homicide rate is in 2015 was 43 homicides per 100,000 residents. In comparison, Chicago has 17 homicides per 100,000 residents; and New York City has 4 homicides per 100,000 residents.

Detroit's violent crime rate also is high. In 2015, it was 1,750 per 100,000 residents, more than triple the national rate of 372 offenses per 100,000 residents.

Unlike Detroit, however, the U.S.saw an increase in several violent crimes in 2015: Murders and non-negligent manslaughter cases increased 10.8%; rapes nationwide went up 6.3 %; aggravated assaults went up 4.6% and robberies increased 1.4%.

Property crimes, however, went down both nationwide and in the city of Detroit, which saw a significant drop in car thefts, down from 10,083 to 5,216.

Nationwide, the country saw an estimated 7.9 million property crimes in 2015. That was a 2.6% drop from the year before, marking the 13th straight year that property crimes went down across the country. Burglaries dropped 7.8%, larceny-thefts declined 1.8%, but motor vehicle thefts rose 3.1%.

In Detroit, property crimes also went down, from 32,983 to 27,559; robberies decreased from 3,570 to 3,457; burglaries dropped from 9,177 to 7,820; but larceny thefts went up from 13,723 to 14,523. Arsons also saw a big jump, 490 to 842.

Free Press reporter Gina Damron contributed to this report.

Tresa Baldas can be contacted at tbaldas@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @Tbaldas.