Even though there are fewer police officers these days across the state of Michigan, a new report indicates that citizens are actually safer now from the perils of serious crime than they have been in over a decade.

According to a report by the people at MLive, an investigation of Michigan’s crime statistics since 2003 shows that despite the consistent bleed of police officers, serious crime continues to drop throughout most of the state.

However, those numbers do not appear to ring true here in Flint where violent crime has doubled since the police department was cut in half, and even suburban crime continues to increase.

Yet, in places like Ann Arbor, Lansing and Saginaw, serious crime has dropped between 8 and 30 percent even with those areas losing as much 31 percent of their law enforcement officers.

Interestingly, the most recent available FBI data for the state of Michigan shows that aggravated assault accounted for 65% of the 43,556 violent crimes reported in 2011, followed by robbery at 24%. Rape ranks next in the world of violent crime at 10% with Murder finishing last at 1%.

The FBI's updated report is scheduled to be released in September.

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