Crime in Longview/Kelso (Long Beach: real estate, work, houses)

[frankintank]

Visited there long ago & liked it. One site shows fairly high crime stats, especially burglary. I've come to associate this, fairly or not, with the presence of a drug or meth culture. Any residents care to comment at length about daily life?

[Alcon]

I'm not from Longview or Kelso, but it's a fairly working class port town. Much of the crime, I imagine, is property theft and the like.

[teeandgee]

theres an online database for statistics such as you are inquiring about. If you do a google on "crime statistics" you can get every detail down to what types of crime and how many.

[Melanie]

I have lived in Longview for 2 1/2 years now and the crime is unbelievable. Car break-ins, purses snatched out of shopping carts, home invasions while people are there, things stolen out of yards, disappearing guardrails, etc. Whatever the tweakers can get their hands on, sell, and buy more drugs, they'll take.

[Hooah]

I grew up in Longview. Crime is at an all time high. They sure cleaned the place up when the Kelso police chief closed down the last four cathouses in the early 70's. It appears that drugs and thievery are to be tolerated. I think the good old days were better for us all.

[Cowlitz County]

Crime is very high. The most recent is nearly 40 windows have been shot out. The laundry mat I would go to to get clothes dry cleaned had bullet holes in the windows. And article in The Daily News just announced Kelso crime up 9% after being down a little last year.

"However, even though 2004 was a relatively low-crime time for Kelso, at 102 property crimes per 1,000 people, the city's property crime rate more than doubled the state average of 48 per 1,000 people."

That's just property crimes. In a series of articles done by the Daily News ealier, it was found that most of the crimes go unreported because people don't even call them in, because police often don't respond. The police don't even venture to those ends of town. When it's too tough/rough for the police, you know somethings wrong.

A murder trial is just starting in town as well. Another on the run.

[travelling_paws]

Wow, this surprises me. I have friends in Astoria Or, and have been thinking about moving out your way - Astoria real estate prices are high, but I've looked at prices anywhere from Longview to Long Beach...much cheaper. Guess there's a reason for that...
Is it just Longview where crime is bad, or does that extend to surrounding areas?
Mind you I'm currently (and temporarily) living in Flint MI, which is one of the highest murder/crime rate cities in the entire country. So just about anyplace else would feel safer!

[Quantum]

Originally Posted by frankintank

One site shows fairly high crime stats, especially burglary.

Well done, Frank. Please tell us which site this was?

[Cowlitz County]

An article from the Daily News, the local paper.

Copy inside the < > and Paste in address bar:
<http://www.tdn.com/articles/2006/04/10/top_story/news01.txt>

A quote from the article,

"Over the last several years, Cowlitz County's property crime rate has ranked among the highest in the state and in the entire nation, according to FBI statistics. In 2003, the county ranked No. 1 statewide in property crime, dropping to fifth place in 2004, according to the annual crime report compiled by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs."

Crime was down in '04 overall, but that was just a year.

[Quantum]

Yikes, thank you CC.

I wonder why they chose that area? Lower real estate prices, or did that follow?