Dakota County Releases 2015 Crime Stats

Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom released an extensive report that gave a detailed overview of the work done in Criminal Prosecution in the past year. Also in the report were comparisons and reflections in trends from crime statistics in many categories. We will provide the information found in the report in our upcoming newscasts and begin with one of those categories, Juvenile Crimes. The Dakota County Attorney prosecutes all crimes that are committed by juveniles ages 10-17. In 2015, a total of 1,029 cases of this type were charged with 837 of them involving misdemeanor-level offenses. This total compares with 1,842 such crimes noted in 2006, just ten years ago. Components of the Juvenile Justice system also deal with accountability programs and a district level initiative called Peer Court seeks to give offenders a way to learn from mistakes before a pattern is established. High school students serve as jurors and identify appropriate sanctions for the juvenile offenders referred to the program. In 2015, seven area high schools hosted peer court: Eastview (Apple Valley), Burnsville, Hastings, Farmington, Lakeville North and South, and South St. Paul. In 2015, 38 juveniles were referred to Peer Court under the direction of First Judicial District Court Judge Joseph Carter. We’ll have more results of the report the office of the Dakota County Attorney in upcoming broadcasts.