Despite Claims of a Spike, Annual Crime Data Shows Steady Trend in East Lansing

For months, public safety has been a primary concern for city leaders, as a perceived spike in crime was used to justify an increase in police spending and the introduction of controversial city ordinances to ban public camping and loitering in parking areas. Data produced by ELPD, however, shows a modest uptick in overall crime and a slight decrease in violent crime in 2025 compared to 2024. 

The city assembled a task force headed by Police Chief Jennifer Brown to address concerns about public safety late in 2025. Among other measures, the committee recommended the city and Downtown Development Authority, or DDA, budget about $377,000 more annually to hire four new police officers and implement bans on public camping and loitering in parking areas. 

The city approved the additional police spending and the bans on camping and loitering have drawn fierce backlash at recent city meetings, but are still being considered by the City Council. 

However, there wasn’t a sharp increase in crime in East Lansing in 2025. Data the police department gave to a city committee examining East Lansing’s finances shows that overall, crime was up about 5% in 2025 from 2024, and down from 2023. 

In 2025, there were 1,876 crimes charged, compared to 1,786 in 2024 and 1,936 in 2023, according to ELPD’s data. 

The slight increase in crime last year is due to an increase in nonviolent crimes. When the data is shrunk to focus on violent crime – aggravated assault, criminal sexual conduct, robbery and murder/voluntary manslaughter – the number of incidents are down slightly with 124 in 2024 and 119 in 2025. 

Simple assault, a lesser and more common charge than aggravated assault that is not typically included in violent crime statistics, was also down last year. In 2024 there were 183 simple assault charges, compared to 166 in 2025. 

City Council voted to increase police spending and is still considering bans on camping and loitering.

Over the last several months, council has deliberated a number of public safety changes proposed by a committee made up of police and city employees, approving recommendations from the committee like budgeting for four more police officers and considering bans on camping and loitering in parking garages. 

Agenda reports related to the committee identified six main issues downtown: noise, social district/El Fresco, unhoused people, bar lines, increased crime and general cleanliness.

A lack of data provided to support claims of increased crime downtown has drawn criticism at City Council and Police Oversight Commission meetings. 

“As I look through the agenda packet, I was again deeply disappointed that this whole plan [was] started by a police chief whose mentality is so blue there is no room for compassion. Who cannot or will not provide data to back her claims that there is an increase in crime,” said Police Oversight Commission Vice Chair Kath Edsall at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. The crime statistics were not attached to the council meeting agenda. 

East Lansing Info reached out to the five members of City Council, as well as the city’s media portal requesting to speak with Brown or City Manager Robert Belleman. Each member of council responded, but Belleman and Brown did not. 

Council members said they did not vote for the increase in police funding because of a perceived spike in crime and most said they believe the department has been understaffed for years. 

“It sometimes takes policy-makers a little while to catch up with the reality of the world and I think that’s what happened here,” Mayor Erik Altmann said. “I think this was over due.”

Further, Meadows explained that ELPD had 67 officers in the early 2000s, and was budgeted for 51 before the council and DDA approved funding for four more officers. 

Members of council said they were not given data that showed an increase in crime during the fall when the city task force was created. Instead, council members said they heard more concerns from downtown business owners than past years and some said they believe they saw more disruptive activity downtown at the start of MSU’s school year. 

A 7-Eleven employee being pepper-sprayed downtown and a stabbing in a parking garage were among violent incidents this fall that seemed unusual and needed to be responded to, Councilmember Kerry Ebersole Singh said. 

Altmann added that based on time he has spent observing the downtown late on weekends and a ride along with ELPD, officers are spending so much time policing downtown, they don’t have enough time to police other parts of the community. He said the DDA funding officers to focus on downtown policing will help free up officers to work in other areas. 

Councilmember Steve Whelan, who worked as an ELPD officer for 25 years before retiring last summer, said he believes the increase in less serious crimes like disorderly conduct could be due to more officers downtown responding to incidents early, before they escalate to more serious charges, like aggravated assault. 

Looking more at the numbers: Disorderly conduct, theft from vehicles and obstruction charges drove a slight crime increase. 

David Carter, a professor in Michigan State University’s school of criminal justice and former police officer, said he doesn’t see any concerning trends in East Lansing’s crime data over the last three years. 

In an email, he explained that East Lansing is a community with a relatively low crime rate and the rate can be difficult to compare to other communities because the city’s student population is hard to capture through the census. Additionally, many people from neighboring communities travel in and out of the city, and MSU events draw large crowds of people to East Lansing who wouldn’t be counted by the census. 

“In my quick view of the data I see no concerning trends, but normal variations in crime similar to what we see in all communities that is attributable to a variety of factors ranging from the volume of the transient population to the weather,” Carter explained. 

Nationally, crime rates have been dropping, but public fear of crime remains high, possibly because of media coverage and wavering confidence in law enforcement agencies, Carter added. 

Looking at the East Lansing numbers, ELPD charged 90 more crimes in 2025 than 2024. 

The difference can be explained by an increase in larceny theft from a motor vehicle, obstructing police, obstruction of justice and disorderly conduct, the four areas that saw the largest jump year-over-year. 

There was an increase of 57 disorderly conduct charges, 35 theft from a motor vehicle charges, 21 obstructing police charges and 21 obstructing justice charges in 2025 compared to 2024. 

There were fewer charges filed related to weapons, assault and criminal sexual conduct in 2025 than 2024, the data shows.