The total number of crimes committed against the elderly in Vicksburg fell by 12.4 percent since 2017, according to statistics released Thursday by the Vicksburg Police Department.

The numbers are part of a report sent by the department to the Mississippi Leadership Council on Aging, which is a branch of the state Department of Public Safety.

Vicksburg is a designated retirement community, according to the report, which adds 19.9 percent of the city’s 23,439 residents are age 60 and older.

According to the report, a total of 767 crimes were committed against the elderly in Vicksburg in 2018, 109 less than the 876 committed in 2017. A total of 854 crimes were committed against the elderly in 2016.

Other numbers include:

• Property theft crimes like vehicle theft, petit larceny and grand larceny, totaled 248 in 2018, down from 2017, which totaled 296, and 276 in 2016.

• A total of 81 burglaries against the elderly were reported in 2018, down from 87 the year before. There were 71 burglaries involving the elderly in 2016.

According to the report, the difference between the burglary incidents in 2018 and 2017 “may be attributed to increased vigilance by local law enforcement and increased vigilance on the part of elderly residents to keep their homes safe.”

• Forty-five trespassing offenses were logged in 2018, down from 71 reported in 2017 and 53 in 2016.

On the opposite side, there were 13 reports of elderly citizens being robbed, up from nine in 2017 and 2016, and 46 forgery cases affecting the elderly, up from 37 in 2017 and 35 in 2016.

“I believe we’re headed in the right direction,” Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said. He called the report “great news for the city of Vicksburg and certainly for the population we need to protect the most. I want to commend the police department and Chief (Milton) Moore. We need to keep doing it.”