So, what's the deal with the crime rate in St. Michaels? (Arnold: home, neighborhoods)

[foycur]

I'm moving my family to St. Michaels on the Eastern Shore for a job in Easton. Had this vision that it was a quiet safe by the Bay community, and when I looked at the crime stats I nearly fell out of my chair. Violent crime seems pretty low, but the property crime is through the roof. Anyone that live there able to fill me in?

[NYerinLondon]

Foycur, I'm surprised as well. It's certainly considered one of the most (if not THE most) affluent towns on the eastern shore. And a very nice place to visit as well--we head down there often for brunch and a walk around the main drag.

The only thing I can think of is property theft of people who are second home owners and only there part time, which is a large portion?

Get a home near VP Cheney and you should have nothing to worry about!

Maybe someone who has a home there can give the real scoop?

[pcity]

Every tourist town has these problems actually. It's more of a problem with the statistics than the towns themselves.

Crime rates are given per RESIDENT. Given that these towns have many NON-RESIDENT visitors (and property owners), the rate per PERSON or PROPERTY OWNER is actually much less than the rate per RESIDENT shown on sites like City-Data.

[foycur]

That makes sense, pcity. The rates I see are reported "per 100K people". I presume that's residents like you said.

I was just kind of alarmed to see in the 2002-2003 timeframe the crime rate there really jumped, and has stayed high relative to the pre 2002-2003 time period. Is that when St. Michaels went boom with tourism, did a biker gang move in, etc?

[Richard Martin]

Large areas of the Coastal Plains from NJ down to GA are desperately poor. That includes parts of MD. Now if you wanted to steal something, for whatever reason, why would you steal from your neighbor when all he has is chickens and a 13" black and white TV with rabbit ears? You wouldn't do that. You'd go to where you can steal something worth stealing.

I live in a city with that problem. Our city is a major medical hub with tons of doctors and others highly paid medical types. We have a world class cardiac center. We have a large university.

But every person that needs a job, regardless of qualifications, heads here. Due to a lack of previously mentioned qualifications they end up being a drag on the city. They end up commiting a huge majority of the crimes. We also get thugs driving here from great distances, sometimes over 100 miles away, just to rob our gas stations. What's up with that? You can't do that in your own dirt bag town?

And try as hard as they can, there is little the police can do. You can't barricade the entrance to the city.

[NYMD67]

There is a huge diversity in economic levels in St.Michaels, basically, the "haves" and the "have nots" and a few of the "I don't have anything but I live like I do".....
I think that the crimes are basically petty crimes, things being stolen from unlocked vehicles,etc... same thing you pretty much find anywhere but the area is small so the % seems alarming.

St.Michael's is a beautiful area and the people, for the most part, are wonderful! Just too many people trying to keep up with everyone else...

[Sparks]

I have family in SM and have not noticed any increase in crime. However, there are a lot of part-time residents there and I can see where there'd be opportunity for crime.

[iwp]

You've got to be kidding. Any crime is either drunks or petty theft. Very safe town.

[KLynch10]

There is not a place in America that doesn't suffer from property crimes. My parents live in one of the nicest neighborhoods in Arnold, and there is more property crimes that you'd think, some of it junkies, some of it high school kids acting like punks.

Get an alarm system, and get a baseball bat and you shouldn't have much to worry about. Great town, plus not too far from bmore, the beach and dc if you need to spice things up!