FBI says Iowa crime rate dropped

The F-B-I has released nationwide crime stats for 2004, and Iowa’s crime rate is down. The rate of violent crime in Iowa fell just over two percent in 2004. There were 43 murders and nearly eight-hundred rapes in Iowa last year. There were many more property-related crimes, including over 11-hundred robberies — a robbery involves a thief and a weapon. There were over 18-thousand burglaries in Iowa last year. While the over-all crime rate is down, there were only slight decreases in such property crimes, and the number of rapes reported in Iowa declined by less than one percent in 2004, compared to the year before. Iowa officials reported about two-dozen so-called “hate crimes” in the state last year, too.