Best Way To Check Crime Stats? Help Please (Trenton, Burlington: crime rate, houses)

[DecayingAngel]

Yup, still lookin' for a house. Sorry for all the questions but this is the BEST place to find out what is going on, and since we live a distance from Burlington County it's hard to just hop in the car and take a drive by.

We are going to look at a house in Hainesport NJ. But no matter where, I was wondering if the best thing to do is to ask the local police dept. The internet is great but nothing like asking the guys who really know the score.

Or would they get irritated with someone pestering them about things like that? I do intend asking neighbors to any property we are considering but would also feel better checking in with the "boys in blue".

I'm not paranoid it's just that when we lived with my mom in Trenton her house was burglarized twice in broad daylight (of course, no surprise there) and the emotional cost of coming home-or worse, walking in on burglars-is even worse then losing your possessions, cash etc.

Thanks much. Hope everybody is keeping warm!

[TheEmissary]

Decaying Angel

Try these:

Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitors sites is not allowed

Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitors sites is not allowed

[jerseyj]

You can also look at this for reference-
Hainesport, NJ Crime Rate Statistics - CLRSearch.com

Not first hand info but interesting.

[timneh5]

Burglaries happen to nice homes in safe areas, too.

[DecayingAngel]

Originally Posted by timneh5

Burglaries happen to nice homes in safe areas, too.

This is true, but you can reduce your odds by trying to pick less crime-prone areas.

I may be hyper-sensitive since experiencing two burglaries at my mother's house. We think we know who did them (actually two different men each time) but not enough evidence could be found to charge them.

Even security systems may not help. The one house we almost put a bid on until we learned about the break-ins from neighbors, one of which had occurred in the house right next door. The lowlights doing them were so slick and fast that they were in and out of houses even before the police could get there.

Where I live now many people still don't lock their houses and doors. I've never felt unsafe here in the 5 years we've been in this house. But the economy really has tanked in this area of South Jersey so we now have no choice.

But it was a bit of culture shock to start looking at homes farther north and learning not only about the crime but also the terrible traffic. Guess I really got spoiled down here!

[tallguylehigh]

The site we are on now:

http://www.city-data.com/

Seriously, type in where you want to live and towards the bottom of all of the information there is a Crime Assessment tool or something that gives a score based on the number of murders, assaults, robberies, etc per 100,000 people a town has. As a baseline they show what the average town is (323 I think).

GL

[Jerseyt719]

Check out the UCR and bear in mind that the numbers are per 1,000.

[DecayingAngel]

Thanks. I did try this with the links but got "could not find city".

The major problem with using the above mentioned method is that with smaller communities, the stats will of necessity lump high crime areas in with lower ones. I tried to find the stats for Hainesport but the disclaimer at the bottom said that other places in Burlington County were factored in. That could really skewer the reality of the situation.

My brother is in law enforcement so maybe they have some means that could pinpoint things down a bit. I am alone at home most of the time, sometimes all night, so this is something that is on my mind.

[Jerseyt719]

Originally Posted by DecayingAngel

Thanks. I did try this with the links but got "could not find city".

The major problem with using the above mentioned method is that with smaller communities, the stats will of necessity lump high crime areas in with lower ones. I tried to find the stats for Hainesport but the disclaimer at the bottom said that other places in Burlington County were factored in. That could really skewer the reality of the situation.

My brother is in law enforcement so maybe they have some means that could pinpoint things down a bit. I am alone at home most of the time, sometimes all night, so this is something that is on my mind.

This is why you should start with the uniform crime reports (UCR). It doesn't "rank" cities, just gives you the numbers for index crimes and let's say for instance, the UCR number is 4 for homicide, that means that there were 4 homicides for every 1,000 in the population of that town. Because of the differences in size of communities, I don't like rankings a lot when I'm looking at a town. I prefer the UCR.

[nsa162]

Numbers dont mean everything. There are towns that have bad areas and then have good areas too. If you look at, for example, NYC as a whole, its one of the safest big cities in the USA. Does that mean there are no burglaries or rapes or murders? No. First find out how the town is, as a whole, from the police dept. Then inquire about the good neighborhoods and the neighborhoods to avoid, if any.