Cheyenne saw a 45.5 percent spike in violent crimes in 2018, mostly driven by a huge jump in aggravated assaults.

Police spokesman Officer Kevin Malatesta says the numbers are a bit deceiving, however, because of changes in the way data was reported last year.

"Prior to 2018, our domestic violence strangulations weren't getting added to our statistics for aggravated assaults," he said. "When we included those this last year, it made that rate for aggravated assaults go up dramatically."

Statistics show there were 155 aggravated assaults in 2018, compared to just 81 in 2017 -- a 91.4 percent increase.

But Malatesta says detectives really didn't see an increased case load in those types of cases.

"We're not seeing an appreciable difference in that aspect, but what we are seeing is just a difference in reporting," he said.

"At the same time, that's disturbing as well," he added. "We should not be having any domestic violence strangulations taking place."

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