Overall crime in Annapolis dropped by 7 percent in the first nine months of this year over last year, despite an increase by more than half in the number of aggravated assaults, city police said yesterday.
The increase in aggravated assaults -- from 202 in January through September last year to 316 in the same period this year -- may be linked to police efforts to make people more willing to report domestic abuse, which makes up a large portion of the assaults, police said.
"There has been a very, very strong effort toward reporting domestic violence," said Capt. Zora Lykken, Annapolis police spokeswoman. "The majority of aggravated assaults are with known assailants. Most of them occur in private, behind closed doors."
