Statistics released by the Madison Police Department Wednesday indicated a decrease in the overall level of crime throughout the city for 2012.

Chief Noble Wray released updated statistics of crime in the city on his blog and reported a 3.4 percent decrease in crime incidents from 2011 to 2012. Specifically, the number of robberies, homicides and fraud decreased last year, the post said.

While some types of crime decreased, incidents of property damage, burglary, aggravated assault and forcible sexual offenses increased from their 2011 levels, the blog post said. The number of property damages increased by 8.5 percent, burglary by 10.3 percent, aggravated sexual assault by 18.5 percent and forcible sexual offenses by 23.9 percent, the post said.

Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said he was not surprised by some of the statistics.

“The slight increase in property crime does not come as a big surprise to me,” Verveer said. ” Anecdotally, that’s a recurring problem that’s been on the upswing, including in the downtown [area].”

However, Verveer said he was concerned about the jump in forcible sexual offenses.

The increase of forcible sexual offenses represented the largest change between 2011 and 2012, according to the post. The number of forcible sexual offenses increased from 184 to 228, the post said.

MPD spokesperson Joel DeSpain said the numbers should be placed in context. Changes from year to year are bound to occur, he said. To see if a crime category is increasing throughout the long term, the MPD must look at data spanning several years, he said.

“Certainly these numbers provide our crime analysts with a bench point to start from … but we don’t like to look at just a one-year difference,” DeSpain said. “Some numbers in Madison, they go up and down every year … and I don’t know that you can read too much into it.”

DeSpain said the increase in forcible sexual offenses may be an exception to this idea.

He also said It is difficult to know the reasons behind the apparent spike in incidents and if the numbers represent an actual increase. The victims of forcible sexual offenses may be reporting crimes to authorities in greater numbers, potentially as a result of increasing awareness of rape crises services in Dane County, he said.

Crime data only represents part of the story, the post said. Ongoing public safety concerns in Madison may contribute to increases in criminal activity, including opiate addiction and gang involvement, the post said. Furthermore, it said many reported crimes come from repeat offenders.

DeSpain said MPD has programs in place that target the demographics of people who tend to be addicted to opiates, involved with gangs or who repeatedly offend, and is working to help those people change their lifestyles.

Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8, said he saw several positive signs in the data overall.

“We are seeing new efforts the city of Madison has put forward, particularly with prevention,” he said. “Clearly, our work is not done, but this is a step forward in the right direction.”