Danger, danger
A new report spells out the most dangerous cities:
A surge in violence made St. Louis the most dangerous city in the country, leading a trend of violent crimes rising much faster in the Midwest than in the rest of nation, according to an annual list.
Here’s a link to buy the actual report. Brick, New Jersey is the safest but, err, that doesn’t grab headlines. Violent crime (danger, I suppose) is based on rates for murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft.
New Jersey also made second most dangerous with Camden, which topped (or bottomed?) the list last year.
The KNS reports that four Tennessee cities made the top 100 dangerous cities. The are Memphis (359 of 371), Nashville (333), Chattanooga (315) and Knoxville (297). The KPD disputes the list claiming it is flawed:
Knoxville Police Chief Sterling P. Owen IV was not immediately available for comment. KPD spokesman Darrell DeBusk said the study appears flawed as far as Tennessee numbers are concerned.
Law enforcement agencies in Tennessee use a more comprehensive and detailed crime reporting system than that used in most other states.
“It’s like comparing apples to oranges,” he said. “All Tennessee law enforcement agencies use an incident based reporting system, versus the Uniform Crime Report system that most law enforcement agencies in the county use.”
In Tennessee, four separate crimes will be reported if, in a single incident, a house is burglarized, the homeowner stabbed, the house vandalized and the homeowner’s car is stolen. “But in the uniform crime report system, all of that is reported as a single crime, the most serious one.”
The FBI has recommended the incident based system as more accurate, but only a few states have adopted it so far, DeBusk said.
October 31st, 2006 at 10:50 am
If that is the case, the migration to the new system will be slow, as pols don’t want the new numbers to mees up their bid for re-election.
November 1st, 2006 at 12:34 pm
I’ve read several times that if the PA-NJ border weren’t preventing Philadelphia and Camden from incorporating into the single city they actually are, the combined city would pretty much far and away be the most crime ridden city in the country pretty much every year.