Anti-Crime Task Forces ~~ Additional Information

[FormerOstrich]

Earlier today in LBN there was a thread about the Anti-Crime task forces being dispatched to areas where the crime rate had skyrocketed.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2867524">LBN Thread

I mentioned that I really hadn't percieved such an increase. Curiosity got the best of me and I did a little research.

According to this source (which is used in many places)

http://phoenix.about.com/od/crimestatistics/a/crime2006_3.htm
">Crime Statistics

Violent Crimes for Mesa for the first half of 2005 = 1290 and first half of 2006 = 978.

Next I visited AZ Central crime reports and selected all violent crimes for Mesa for the past year (6/2006-6/2007). I have no way of knowing if this is an "apples to apples" definition but the grand total for Mesa violent crimes for the past year was 1016.

For simplicity...the previous report would indicate an annual rate of 2580 (using 2005 data) or 1956 (using 2006 data). Therefore, the annual rate of 1016 for the previous year seems to be a reduction in violent crimes for the 2nd year in a row.

Next, I subtotaled each category (Assault, robbery, etc). In most categories the highest number of reported incidents were in 2006 (actually it appears that October 2006 was a rough month).

For instance: Armed Robberies in October 2006 = 26 and May 2007 = 15.

There have been only 5 homicides in the last year. They were all in 2006. Mesa has not had a homicide this year.

Granted, the AZ Central crime database may not be perfect data. I don't know how accurate it is. However, the statistics matched with my own impression that there has been much worse times in the past.


My point is.....what in the hell is up with the "task forces"???? I'm not buying the official line.......

[Joanne98]

1. there is something strange going on.

[FormerOstrich]

2. Yes, kicking my own thread....

I thought there would be some discussion about this but the original thread and this thread don't seem to garner much interest.....

:kick:

[NYC]

3. It's interesting, but perplexing.

People probably don't have any answers. I don't.