One of the core services that physical security personnel provide is protecting property from burglaries. Dictionary.com defines burglary as a break-in with the intent to steal.
According to the FBI, there were 1,579,527 of these crimes in the U.S. in 2015. A majority of those, 57 percent, were forced entries while 35 percent were unlawful entries.
Most Burglarized U.S. Cities
Working with FBI data for 2015, the most recent statistical information available, ADT recently posted information on their blog about the most burglarized urban areas in the country. They rated the cites based on a per capita basis, looking at the number of burglaries per 10,000 people of their population.
The city with the most per capita was Bastrop, Louisiana. The population there is 10,773 and there were 429.8 burglaries per 10,000 people.
The cities that appeared on the Top 10 list include:
- Bastrop, LA – 429.8 per 10,000 people
- Blytheville, AR – 347.2 per 10,000 people
- Lumberton, NC – 341.2 per 10,000 people
- Laurinburg, NC – 285 per 10,000 people
- Hammond, LA – 275.8 per 10,000 people
- Anniston, AL – 269.4 per 10,000 people
- College Park, GA – 235.2 per 10,000 people
- New Castle, PA – 233.5 per 10,000 people
- El Dorado, AR – 220.5 per 10,000 people
- Danville, IL – 219.9 per 10,000 people
As you can see, no California cities appear in that Top 10 list.
California Burglaries
ADT went on to provide data on the most burglarized cities in each state. For California, that town was California City. The population there in 2015 was 12,218 and that area experienced 204.3 burglaries per 10,000 people. That rate is higher than what any of the larger cities in the state experienced.
Worst States for Burglary
If you’re curious about which states are the worst for these crimes, CheatSheet.com provided a Top 5 list. The ranking here is based on the number of burglaries in 2015 per 100,000 people:
- Mississippi – 828 burglaries per 100,000
- New Mexico – 819 per 100,000
- Nevada – 773 per 100,000
- Arkansas – 760 per 100,000
- Louisiana – 759 per 100,000
The Bottom Line
Burglaries cost the country a significant sum in 2015. The victims of those crimes lost an estimated $3.6 billion in property. The total number of burglaries that year accounted for 19.8 percent of all property crimes.
If you want to protect your property or business from burglaries call American Security Force today at 855-722-8585.