Even with a rare double homicide, Red Bank’s crime rate plummeted in 2009, according to data released today by the New Jersey State Police.

The agency’s annual Uniform Crime Report indicates that both violent and non-violent crime rates fell in the borough from 2008, when no homicides occurred.

The number of reported rapes dropped from four in 2008 to one last year, and the total number of violent crimes fell by nearly half, from 57  to 30, the report says.

With a drop in the number of nonviolent crimes, from 269 to 227, the overall crime rate per 1,000 residents fell to 21.7, from 27.4 in 2008, the report says.

The violent crime rate dropped to 4.8 per thousand to 2.5, the state data indicate. The number of robberies fell from 39 to 10 last year, according to the report.

The only category to show an increase in offenses was that of aggravated assaults. Data showed there were 17 such cases in 2009, up from 14 in 2008.

Police Chief Steve McCarthy, who took over the top post early this year, was not immediately available to comment on the report.

The declines tracked statewide declines. The Star-Ledger reports that violent crime in New Jersey fell four percent last year, to it’s lowest point in a decade.