Safest cities in the country

[RB TexLa]

They based it on reported crimes, I think it shows people here (Dallas) just report crimes to the police more than people in other cities.

http://www.nbc5i.com/news/9883680/detail.html

Nation's 10 largest cities in 2005, in order of safety:
1. New York: one crime per 37.38 residents.
2. San Jose, Calif.: one crime per 34.46 residents.
3. Los Angeles: one crime per 25.97 residents.
4. San Diego: one crime per 24.09 residents.
5. Chicago: one crime per 21.9 residents.
6. Philadelphia: one crime per 17.96 residents.
7. Houston: one crime per 14.17 residents.
8. San Antonio: one crime per 14.12 residents.
9. Phoenix: one crime per 14.10 residents.
10. Dallas: one crime per 11.79 residents.

[HockeyMom]

1. 9/11 made NYC lowest in crime

No brainer. Getting to be almost more law enforcement (local/federal/plainclothes/undercover) than residents nowadays.

[Jed Dilligan]

13. Sounds like a nightmare

America attacked! Abolish civil society!

[mom cat]

2. Dallas has too many guns per person.

[RB TexLa]

3. I think it's too many people reporting crimes to the police

[mom cat]

5. What is it about Dallas that would make them more prone to report?

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

9. Um...what's wrong with reporting crimes to the police?

I don't care if my neighbor's smoking pot, but I'd sure as hell report a robbery or suspected abuse.

[RB TexLa]

12. It's just that is what leads to these stats, not actual crime numbers

Also different states and cities report differently. We actually had a mayor in Louisiana on TV talking about how companies use these numbers in choosing where to locate and he didn't think people thought about that when calling things into the police.

[madville]

4. NY has the highest crime rate

NY has the highest crime rate, it just depends on how you look at it. Example:


NYC - One crime per 37.38 residents. 8,168,338 / 37.38 equals 218,522 crimes. 218,522 crimes divided by 305 square miles of dry land equals 716 crimes per square mile.

Using that formula here is the rest of the list:

1. NYC - 716 crimes/sq. mile
Philadelphia - 603 crimes/sq. mile
CHICAGO - 578 crimes/sq. mile
LA - 315 crimes/sq. mile
DALLAS - 300 crimes/sq. mile
HOUSTON - 244 crimes/sq. mile
SAN ANTONIO - 218 crimes/sq. mile
PHOENIX - 209 crimes/sq. mile
SAN DIEGO - 160 crimes/sq. mile
SAN JOSE - 158 crimes/sq. mile

Based on those facts you are over four times more likely to see or be the victim of a crime in NYC than you are in San Jose. Twisting numbers is fun :)

[RB TexLa]

6. but there are 25,925 people per NYC sq. mile and only 7,873 per LA sq mile

So that really doesn't work out like you say.

[ComerPerro]

11. That was the point, I imagine

it doesn't work out like that, and it doesn't work out like you say, either.

People try to oversimplify complex issues using statistics, and the point of that post was to show you how things could change using a different statistic...

[madville]

14. Yep

You can't measure crime or anything else from one angle. Way to complex to make a good news article anyway :)

[sandnsea]

7. Murders per capita

According to this link it was bad in Dallas, in 2002 at least, and murders aren't counted based on self-reporting. I'd say Dallas is a dangerous city. Portland had 4 murders per 100,000 and there's plenty of folks in the northwest that think Portland is dangerous.

http://www.safestreetsdc.com/subpages/murdercap.html

[billbuckhead]

8. Concealed Carry isn't working in Texas and Arizona

The gun lobby and their fellow travelers promoted concealed carry as a panacea to crime but it isn't turning out that way.

[leftofthedial]

10. weird, since

republicans: hundreds of crimes per person.