Missouri crime (Springfield, Fulton, Nixa: crime rate, job market, living in)

[BadgerNut]

Hello All,

I've been interested in moving and have looked at some smaller cities in southern to mid Missouri and what I've found is a high crime rate, just curious for some insight on this. The cities I've looked at are: Harrisonville, Perryville, Park Hills, Fulton and Springfield. Thanks.

[Curmudgeon]

Without looking up the specifics on those towns, as a former cop I would caution you to look at violent crimes vs. property crimes. The former, if predominate, would certainly give me pause. The latter are far less worrisome. Also, the lower the population, the higher a single crime rates on the index. Count the number of actual crimes as a measure rather than relying on the index number. You may find that a site has a 450+ index rating based upon 12 crimes in an entire year.

Good luck.

[lone sailor]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

Without looking up the specifics on those towns, as a former cop I would caution you to look at violent crimes vs. property crimes. The former, if predominate, would certainly give me pause. The latter are far less worrisome. Also, the lower the population, the higher a single crime rates on the index. Count the number of actual crimes as a measure rather than relying on the index number. You may find that a site has a 450+ index rating based upon 12 crimes in an entire year.

Good luck.

Well said, and I completely agree. You have to look at things in context, and not just what the Negative Nancy's want you to see.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

Some rural areas there are drugs, but I live in a small town and I've never had to deal with them personally. Cops have made drug busts here before, but the violent crime rate is pretty low.

Curmudgeon summed it up pretty well, I think. Look at violent crimes vs. property crimes.

I've never lived in Springfield, but most people I talk to seem to consider it a fairly safe place to live, at least for a city its size.

[1hillman]

Well out in the Sticks Big thing is Meth because to hard to get away with growing Marijuana.

I know in Springfield most of what I've seen is Gang Bangers move in from Chicago bring their Bull with them.Another problem has been Illegal Immigrants moving it but with ICE,Goverment and Bad Job market maybe this will be taken care of.

hillman

[cdc1211]

I used to live in Springfield, and lived on the south side of the city. It was very safe for the most part. The north side was known as the part with more problems, but even there, it was not that bad.

Also, you could consider the nearby towns of Nixa and Ozark. Both are very safe and only a 10-15 minute drive to Springfield.

And I also agree, you can't read too much into crime index numbers. Even a few isolated incidents can throw a small town's numbers out of whack.

[christina0001]

I used to work in Harrisonville. I looked up the crime stats online here at citydata and it seems like the biggest crime is theft. Harrisonville is very safe. I never worried about any sort of crime. I would recommend Harrisonville w/ no problem.

[OA 5599]

The only crime I'd really worry about in rural Missouri is along the lines of bored teenagers bashing your mailbox. Other incidents do happen occasionally (like car theft), but are really quite rare. People in my hometown in south central MO often leave their doors unlocked and leave their keys in their car if when they go into a store. I've been living in the city for a few years now so I lock everything by habit. Violent crime tends to only affect people involved in the drug trade - most of rural Missouri does have a problem with meth although the large cracking down on it in the past few years have reduced the problem. Occasional domestic violence will also occur, but again, that really only affects the people involved - while it is a terrible thing, you are very unlikely to become a victim as an innocent bystander.