[technicalitee]

I've read a lot here about escalating crime in Florida so I took a look at the Law Enforcement figures.

In every category crime has dropped in the last 15 years even though the population has risen by around 5 million.

I heard an interesting statistic the other day: in a 20 year period murder in the US had dropped by 20% - during this time the media reporting of murder rose by 600%.

Whats the opinion here, is crime really down in Florida or could some spin be put on these figures? Surely some of you FL residents must be feeling this reduction?


Year Property Murder Rape Robbery Assault Burglary
1991 977,570 1,248 6,865 53,083 96,047 266,313
1992 964,533 1,208 7,310 49,482 104,827 254,755
1993 977,363 1,224 7,359 48,913 107,479 251,063
1994 991,105 1,165 7,301 45,871 105,679 237,341
1995 939,288 1,037 6,887 42,485 101,302 215,657
1996 928,273 1,077 7,508 41,643 101,122 219,056
1997 915,613 1,012 7,599 40,459 100,926 213,926
1998 887,107 967 7,404 36,198 95,447 203,105
1999 808,674 859 6,990 31,969 89,226 181,378
2000 780,377 903 7,057 31,809 90,008 172,898
2001 782,517 874 6,641 32,867 90,331 176,052
2002 777,236 911 6,753 32,581 88,476 177,242
2003 757,696 924 6,727 31,523 85,106 170,644
2004 727,141 946 6,612 29,997 86,199 166,332
2005 712,998 883 6,592 30,141 88,341 164,783
2006 721,084 1,129 6,475 34,147 87,044 170,873

[121804]

I don't put a lot of weight on crime figures.

If one wants to find the crime, they will. If someone wants to commit a crime, they will.

Stay away from the areas that house the known gangs & drug dealers. Don't go to areas that are notorious for crime related issues.

Crime stats can be found in any city in the US. Some areas are higher than others due to unemployment figures, low paying wages, illegal immigrant problems, etc.

Look at the triple murder that just occurred in one of the most prestigous neighborhood's in CT this past summer. A few years ago, two teenagers killed 2 Dartmouth professors in another prestigous neighborhood.

Each state suffers with crime issues. Florida's are definitely geographical in nature. I would be less worried about the crime in FL as the tax issues, housing issues, employment issues, and education issues. Start to fix these things & some of the crime will dissipate. It will never go away completely.

[backtofla]

violent crime rose unfortunately from 05 to 06