No Joke: Crime Spikes in Missoula During Full Moons

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The Missoula County Attorney’s Office filed 14 new criminal complaints this week, which is three less than last week and less than the weekly average. According to Deputy County Attorney Mac Bloom, this was a rather quiet week. 

“Four of those felonies were violent crimes against persons, four of them were endangerment type crimes, four of them were property crimes, and two of them were drug crimes,” Bloom said. “Seven of those cases were charged as an in custody where the person is actually in jail when they get charged, and then seven of them were charged when the person was out of custody and then summons to come into court.” 

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Bloom was asked if the recent weather conditions have had an impact at all on the current crime numbers. 

“We have been debating this for years and just kind of anecdotally keeping an eye on it,” Bloom said. “It seems like what really affects it is the full moon, no joke, and then obviously around holidays. The weather doesn't seem to play that big of a role. It really seems to be the full moon where we start seeing major spikes in crime. So that's been kind of an unusual thing that we've noticed over the years.” 

Bloom said crime has been par for the course so far in 2024, but they have had four coroners' inquests so far which is higher than normal. 

“We do a coroner’s inquest anytime someone dies while being taken into law enforcement custody or while they're in law enforcement custody,” Bloom said. “I'm sure people may have noticed that we've done four of those so far this year and that was because we were facing a little bit of a backlog. There has not been more officer-involved deaths than before. We just could not find coroners that would come down to Missoula County that would actually sit as the judge on these coroner's inquest.” 

Bloom said they were finally able to clear the backlog and they are all caught up now. The Missoula County Attorney’s Office provides a weekly crime report every Friday morning at 9:00 on Talk Back. You can listen to Bloom’s full report below: