Major crimes went down in Park City for the fourth consecutive year in 2024, according to data in an annual report from city police.
Last year, police investigated 473 reports of major crimes, compared to 517 in 2023 and 572 in 2022. It’s also a significant drop from 2020, when 701 incidents were reported.
According to Park City Police Lt. Jay Randall, major crimes are defined as those involving violent crime or homicide, officer-involved critical incidents, sexually motivated crime and things like identity theft.
Theft remained the most reported major crime with 138 instances in 2024 compared to 177 in 2023. Assault was the second most reported with 111 instances, an increase of 23 reports compared to 2023. Domestic incidents were the third most reported, but at 101, the overall number of cases was the same as the previous year. Fraud was the fourth most reported with 64 instances, an increase of 16 compared to 2023.
Since Park City is a smaller community, Randall said the rate of offenses classified as major crimes has never been very high.
“We attribute part of that to the fact that we have a lot of people in this wonderful community who see something, they say something, they report it,” he said. “Larger organizations deal with a little bit less of that. The bigger municipalities have a tendency to have fewer people call in.”
Property loss crimes also decreased by almost 40% in 2024. In 2023, more than $950,000 in property was lost. In 2024, residents reported losses totaling more than $580,000.
Park City police officers made over 4,500 traffic stops in 2024. That’s down almost 1,500 from 2023. Randall said the decrease is partly because a few traffic team officers have been out for non-work-related injuries.
“We've had a couple that have been out as long as almost six months and their primary focus is to make traffic stops and enforce traffic laws,” he said.
That led to an almost 24% drop in reported traffic offenses and a 5.6% decrease in traffic citations year over year.
Men accounted for 81% of arrests in 2024. Almost 150 men were arrested compared to about 35 women.
Randall said arrest data also tend to reflect the demographics of the area; around 70% of Park City’s male population is caucasian and around 30% is Latino. In 2024, nearly 72% of those arrested were white.
The department plans to use these statistics to identify where more education is needed.
“Our goal is to maintain and look at trends, and if we see something, find a way to curb that trend, if possible, whether that's education or whether that's actually reaching out to a certain demographic,” Randall said.
Right now the department’s focus is to help and educate Park City’s Latino community. Randall said that’s because of a slight increase in arrests and President Donald Trump’s recent executive order to increase U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, activity.
