As I once had to explain to a semi-hysterical caller to SFR, we regularly report on political corruption, burglary, homicide, rape and more. Just because we run a story about something doesn’t mean we condone it.

Apropos, burglary, homicide, rape, etc. collectively form the subject of this week’s Big Picture: crime. People like to talk about how bad crime in Santa Fe has become, but to what degree and which crimes and where are typically left hanging. The numbers below are approximations pulled from crimereports.com.

Unless otherwise specified, all numbers are for the city of Santa Fe during the first two weeks of March (1-14).

Crime in Santa Fe: The Index

Total number of crimes reported: 1,221

Average number of crimes per day: 87.21

Percentage of those that pertain to traffic (includes DWI), the most common category: 42

Average number of traffic citations per day: 36.93

Total number of DWIs: 12

Most common category after traffic: quality-of-life (412)

Average number of quality-of-life incidents per day: 29.43

Number of quality-of-life crimes pertaining to alcohol: 37 intoxicated persons/1 liquor law violation

Percentage of total crimes due to alcohol (includes DWI): 4.1

Average number of alcohol-related incidents per day: 3.57

Number of drug reports: 16

Number of sexual offense reports: 0

Number of thefts: 517

Average number of thefts per day: 8.14

Percentage of total crimes that are thefts: 42

Areas with the highest concentrations of theft: downtown, Cerrillos Road corridor south of St. Michael’s Drive

Number of burglaries: 60

Average number of burglaries per day: 4.29

Number of burglaries in the Railyard: 1

Areas with concentrations of five (5) or more burglaries: northeast quadrant, Las Acequias corridor between Agua Fria and Alameda streets, Siringo Road area behind Santa Fe University of Art and Design, Cerrillos Road north of Zafarano Drive

Approximate number of Santa Fe police officers: 150

For comparison, here are the alcohol numbers from St. Patrick’s Day (March 17)

Number of DWIs: 1

Number of reports of intoxicated persons: 3