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This was in the Post and Courier the other day. I posted it in another thread but thought I'd post it in it's own thread for general interest sake. Note that the figures are for a 12 or 13 year period and only reflect homicides. You can zoom in/out and click on each pinpoint for details. Might help answer some oft-asked questions about safe areas.
Better tool, Specifically pinpoint an address to see all "recent crime".
Charleston has changed from the last 10-12 years, that P&C map shouldn't be used for new residents to determine if an area is "safe".
Well I've seen the spotcrime tool before but does it seem accurate to you? I live on James isl so I tried typing in the 29412 zip and it shows all the crime happening in one area around Ft Johnson and Folly and nothing anywhere else. I know that's not true. Type in 29401 and it shows plenty east of King st and nothing west of King st? Hard to believe....
I tried searching by date (from the first of the year to now) and it shows more but again... lots of incidents in West Ashley but not a single one below rt 17? Enough on James Island but nothing on Folly at all? Only 1 incident in all of Mt Pleasant?
Maybe I'm not doing it right but it's never seemed to work well for me unless I was looking up just a specific address.
I tried to point out that the homicide tool I'd linked to is data from 2001 and on and I know things have changed somewhat but I still think it's a generally accurate reflection of how the areas rank. West side of Chas is generally safer than east side, etc.
... that P&C map shouldn't be used for new residents to determine if an area is "safe".
Concentration of murders seems like a pretty good way to determine safety in my opinion. I can pick out several areas in Chas, N. Chas and West Ashley that people here would claim to be safe, but that are within 1 mile of double digit murders. That's not OK, in my opinion.
No matter how you "feel" about the safety of your neighborhood, if you've got 7-15 people per year being murdered within a mile of your house you have a safety problem. That's just my opinion, of course.
I am not saying these locations are dangerous, necessarily. But I am saying that "safe" isn't a word I'd use to describe them either.
Last edited by lizardspock; 01-06-2014 at 01:55 PM..
Well I've seen the spotcrime tool before but does it seem accurate to you? I live on James isl so I tried typing in the 29412 zip and it shows all the crime happening in one area around Ft Johnson and Folly and nothing anywhere else. I know that's not true. Type in 29401 and it shows plenty east of King st and nothing west of King st? Hard to believe....
I tried searching by date (from the first of the year to now) and it shows more but again... lots of incidents in West Ashley but not a single one below rt 17? Enough on James Island but nothing on Folly at all? Only 1 incident in all of Mt Pleasant?
Maybe I'm not doing it right but it's never seemed to work well for me unless I was looking up just a specific address.
I tried to point out that the homicide tool I'd linked to is data from 2001 and on and I know things have changed somewhat but I still think it's a generally accurate reflection of how the areas rank. West side of Chas is generally safer than east side, etc.
"Accurate reflection of how areas rank?" Based on the P&C homicide map???
Your comparing apples to oranges, different populations and demographics. Your hypothesis is confounding, there is nothing accurate about your ranking.
Ex: A person unfamiliar to downtown Charleston should not look to live on Queen St, just because there have been 4-5 homicides within a couple of blocks away? That area to you isn't safe? The purpose of that map is to show the public that crime has gone down due to the hard work of our police, not to show "how areas rank"
"Accurate reflection of how areas rank?" Based on the P&C homicide map???
Your comparing apples to oranges, different populations and demographics. Your hypothesis is confounding, there is nothing accurate about your ranking.
Ex: A person unfamiliar to downtown Charleston should not look to live on Queen St, just because there have been 4-5 homicides within a couple of blocks away? That area to you isn't safe? The purpose of that map is to show the public that crime has gone down due to the hard work of our police, not to show "how areas rank"
Calm down phurt, what I said was a "generally accurate reflection..." I also noted that the data covers 12-13 years. Personally 4-5 homicides over that time span wouldn't scare me away and that's not anything like what I said.
Just look at where the higher concentration of incidents have occurred on the map. Those areas are still, generally speaking, less safe areas than those areas with less incidences. That's all I said and all I meant. Whether it's safe enough to live there is a personal judgement call. I would be ok living on the east side, say on America St, if I needed to but does that mean it's as safe as the west side or Queen St? No way.
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