Crime in El Paso (Houston: real estate, home, living)

[Muhnay]

El Paso Border Patrol reported that they have 1300-2000 arrest daily. They also reported that they deal with people from 140 different nationalities.

Funny how those stats don't get used in the FBI's safest city stats.

[holmes]

I have heard of a few gang members that have been nabbed lately by the BP, but I think the vast majority are honest people just trying to make a living. Of course not many other cities in the country aside from those on the border deal with the immigration issues we deal with everyday, but it would be interesting to know if these numbers affect our crime statistics at all. Meaning, when they were apprehended were they doing anything criminal aside from illegally entering the country?

[Muhnay]

Honest people don't break the law to do their job. What part of Illegal don't you understand?

Some of those Honest people are prostitutes that are arrested 3-5 times in a single night.. because the El Paso PD cant hold them. And our jail is so over filled that the jail system has no place for them, so they release them.

[Eltexan]

Im guessing the info that you're referring to, you got it from the tv series "Cops", which was filmed in El Paso. This was filmed in 1994, almost fourteen years ago. And no I dont think you should hold El Paso responsible for people jumping the border. There's a difference between someone jumping the border and someone committing a robbery, murder,rape..etc.

[Muhnay]

Uhm nope..

Here is some other numbers and a link.

The El Paso Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol covers more than 325,000 square kilometers, including the entire state of New Mexico and the two westernmost counties in Texas. It is responsible for monitoring 290 kilometers of land border and 142 kilometers of river border with some 2,200 agents.

So far in fiscal year 2007, Border Patrol agents in the El Paso Sector alone have made 64,838 apprehensions; in 2006, the number was 122,246. Some illegal immigrants try to enter the United States for criminal purposes. In 2007, El Paso Sector agents made 924 seizures, nabbing 48,844 kilograms of marijuana and nearly 184 kilograms of cocaine.

http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&x=20070925164139ajesroM0.1921656 (broken link)

[lipbalm]

I have posted about this before, but everytime I see a posting about "crime in el paso" I just laugh. This past weekend the crime hotspot that is Houston claimed the life of the mother of a co-worker. she was just standing at the supermarket minding her own business when two robbers got into a shootout with the security guard and was caught in the crossfire. El Paso is many things but crime infested it is not.

[KimK]

FBI statistics are compiled from police and sheriff statistics. I do not believe they include federal law enforcement statistics like DEA, Border Patrol or the FBI for that matter. These reporting statistics can be quite misleading (like all statistics).

In busy areas like L.A., the police do not come to your home for most property crimes to take a report. If you want a report, you down load the form or call for it to be sent to you and you fill it out and send it in.

I know of one municipality that cut its crime stats by introducing enough doubt in the public's mind about the difference in the self-reporting of theft as opposed to burglary. These crimes are very different in most states but in this one instance, the wording was jiggled about so that the public was mis-led about what a burglary was. Hence, the number of reported burglaries dropped significantly and the thefts increased. It made it appear that this city had made great progress in suppressing burglaries (a more serious crime than theft) when it had not done anything. Interestingly, this city has appeared as one of the top ten safest cities in the U.S. more than once in the last decade.

And, of course, these statistics are only about reported crime. So, lets say the cops go out to a domestic argument and their isn't quite enough evidence to effect an arrest for domestic abuse or assault. It would not necessarily be reported as a crime report but rather an incident report of some type and those are not included in FBI reporting.

Finally, there is no oversight or reprecussions for poor reporting on what these municipalities actually report. The FBI just accepts the data whatever it is. Originally, these statistics were more internally used by law enforcement. Its only been in the last say fifteen or twenty years that they are even mentioned publicly and used publicly by real estate people, developers, city fathers and mothers, whoever as "proof" of safety.

With all that being said, El Paso is very safe given its population no matter what these FBI statistics show.