That’s the way the headline reads, and taken at face value, you would think that crime in our city was a thing of the past. But there are a couple of major caveats that cut into the possible validity of the statement.
The latest figures, and these are the ones touted by the news media, come from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s statistics, and were compiled with input from hundreds of agencies. The FBI report is entitled Crime in the United States, 2012. If you look at the report, you won’t find a page that ranks cities, counties, regions, states or other entities by how much crime is reported. Indeed, the press release issued by the FBI which announced the new figures specifically contains a section called “Caution Against Ranking.” It says that ranking these areas leads to simplistic, incomplete and misleading conclusions about the state of crime in a particular section of the country.
The recent headline is actually inaccurate even assuming ranking is appropriate, since it suggests that Austin is safer than any other city in the country. It is in fact based upon limited data concerning violent crime in cities with a population of 500,000 or more.
In any event, if you compare the figures for Austin over time, you’ll agree that it’s not an entirely rosy picture. On the plus side, violent crime overall was down by about 2% between 2011 and last year. But here are some the figures that suggest the headline may be misleading:
We expect, of course, there will be some disagreement about the meaning of the new crime figures. We did, however, find an interesting statement from Austin PD Chief Art Acevedo concerning the problem related to the increase in burglaries. He says that about a third of all burglaries do not involve any forced entry, because people are simply not locking their doors. Just a thought about what we might do, at no cost to us or to taxpayers in general, to make it just a bit more difficult for someone to commit a property crime.
Law Office of David D. White, PLLC
1205 Rio Grande Street
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 369-3737
This Website is meant for marketing purposes only. The website and communications through it do not constitute a client-attorney relationship. David White is a criminal defense attorney with offices in Austin Texas. David defends clients throughout Austin and the surrounding areas.
Law Office of David D. White, PLLC