Minneapolis/St. Paul Metro Safety Overrated? (Welcome, Myrtle: low crime, law, dangerous)

[MINresident]

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

Which would make 57 or 58, maybe, if the trend were to continue.

That's only 15-16 per 100,000, isn't it?

This table might put it in perspective:

United States cities by crime rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If that table has accurate data, then that would make Minneapolis 15th in violent crime, ahead of the safe havens of Vegas, Dallas, and Chicago!

[srsmn]

Originally Posted by west336

Did YOU read the table? According to this we have a higher violent crime rate than:

Chicago
Houston
Boston
Dallas
Long Beach
Phoenix
Milwaukee
New York
San Antonio


....just to name a few that have (or have had) notorious crime issues.

A couple of points of clarification:

First of all, a few of those cities *do not* have 'notorious crime issues,' nor have they for a long time. Boston and New York, in particular.

Second, our murder rate among the cities you listed is only higher than New York's, San Antonio's, and Long Beach's. It appears as though our 'forcible rape' rate is unusually high, however, that is a violent crime that tends not to be random-- i.e., tourists and random people walking downtown tend to not be susceptible to it. Sadly, rapists usually know their victims.

Third, when you compare our violent crime rate to cities on that list that actually *do* have quite a bad reputation for it (Philly, Detroit, Cleveland, Oakland, Baltimore, Memphis, St. Louis, DC), our rate is lower than all of them, and quite markedly in most cases. Heck, even Kansas City has a higher violent crime rate than us.

Fourth, this is old data. 2009 was a better year violent-crime wise than 2008, although that is changing again this year.

Fifth, this doesn't take into account St. Paul. I know that we are discussing crime in downtown Minneapolis in particular, but c'mon....you really can't separate St. Paul from any discussion about metro-wide issues, and St. Paul's violent crime rate is remarkably low, which means that the cumulative violent crime rate for the core Twin Cities is pretty low, too.

Sixth, the real danger to visitors/tourists/people walking downtown is probably property crime, not violent crime, because-- again-- a lot of violent crime tends not to be random (gang violence, etc.). If you look at the property crime statistic for Minneapolis isn't the lowest, but is lower than a lot of the cities on that list, including a few that you mentioned. Again, St. Paul's property crime rate is even lower....

[srsmn]

Originally Posted by MINresident

If that table has accurate data, then that would make Minneapolis 15th in violent crime, ahead of the safe havens of Vegas, Dallas, and Chicago!

There are probably a few reporting issues there from police dept. to police dept., but Chicago has made significant strides to clean up its act since crime peaked there in the '90's, and I think Vegas is so oriented towards families and tourists nowadays that their rate is declining, too. It ain't run by mobsters no more.

[srsmn]

Originally Posted by MINresident

More on the eastern end within a few blocks of the Metrodome at about 9:30 - 10:00 pm one time and another time at about 4:00. The biggest reason I felt unsafe was due to profiling people. Of course, I don't know the city very well and could be exaggerating slightly, but than again, the police presence was small. All I know is that I would never walk in downtown Minneapolis alone at any time of the day, unless I was with a crowd.

I think you answered your own question here twice, when you admitted that you were profiling, and then said that you wouldn't walk around downtown alone "at any time of the day." In all honesty, you just sound like you don't have a whole lot of city-experience. Now, don't get me wrong-- I don't doubt that you've been to Detroit, etc. and felt safer in their downtowns. Minneapolis is actually sort of famous for having a pedestrian-unfriendly downtown, which is something the city is working hard on. It's tough to really get a feel for how safe an entire area is just from the downtown, however.

Minneapolis has a few very impoverished neighborhoods right on the periphery of downtown-- sort of rare for a city its size. And, poverty breeds crime. If you went into areas a further distance from downtown, though, and then compared them to neighborhoods the same distance from downtown Detroit, I think you would find that Detroit is-- on average-- a heck of a lot scarier. But, as a visitor, there aren't a lot of reasons to leave downtown, so I think that's where your perception is stemming from...

[smith21]

minneapolis is not bad and i think certain crimes that happen in minneapolis would not even be recorded or in other cities and people get arrested for petty crimes where as in other cities the cops will just let you go.

[west336]

That sounds like an assumption, smith21....

[MINresident]

So it sounds like some common themes are:
-a lot less outside traffic due to skyways
-downtown itself may not be the safest compared to other cities but the rest of the city and metro is pretty safe

So in a sense, I have some legitimacy to not liking downtown MSP, but it is also some paranoia.

[west336]

I think if you're not stupid and you become familiar with downtown you'll feel safe 99% of the time. If something does happen (which can happen anywhere), you should know how to handle it.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by west336

Did YOU read the table? According to this we have a higher violent crime rate than:

Chicago
Houston
Boston
Dallas
Long Beach
Phoenix
Milwaukee
New York
San Antonio


....just to name a few that have (or have had) notorious crime issues.

I never said anything about how Minneapolis compared. The value for this year is relatively high.

[smith21]

minneapolis has an extremely high rate of rape way way higher then other cities at one point in the 90s minneapolis had almost as many as newyork and im not talking about per capita. milwaukee and minneapolis are similar for violent crime so it says in the crime reports, will i have been to milwaukee and north minneapolis looks like disneyland in comparison to the northside of milwaukee. i just came back from des moines and even people down there say that minneapolis is the cleanest city they have ever seen.