TN, Do you feel safe? (Memphis, Kingsport: crime rates, house, neighborhood)

[Sigequinox]

Hello everyone,

The wife and I have our hopes set on moving to the greater Nashville area of TN. Our Number one choice right now is Franklin.

Looking at the crime stats, TN has some issues there. However, I am seeing that over 50% of "crimes against persons" (assaults?) are domestic. But still there are over 30k violent assault crime reports/year and about 2k forcible rape, etc (2012 crime report below).

http://www.tbi.tn.gov/tn_crime_stats...ee%20Final.pdf

Do you folks feel majority of these crimes are concentrated and the rest of the state is pretty safe, or is the problem more or less wide spread? greater Nashville area a problem or nothing to worry about?

Thanks in advance!

[BirdieBelle]

Yes, I feel safe.

Lifelong Tennessean, born in Memphis, 23-yr resident of Nashville area.

I've experienced 1 home break-in in 1975. No other incidents since.

I'm not a crime expert, but in my perception, random crimes here are rare. There is usually a link (domestic or drug related).

[Serious Conversation]

In my neighborhood, I feel safe, but the neighborhood I live in is mostly older people (60+) who have been there for many years.

My car was egged once in college and all four of my tires were deflated (but not slashed) at a restaurant a few weeks ago. An older car I had suffered minor vandalism at a local office last year. We had a mentally ill guy that walked his dog literally through the yard repeatedly at night when I was a teenager, but no charges were ever filed. Other than nearby pharmacies being robbed repeatedly over the last year or so, my immediate area is pretty quiet. I do think crime (especially pharmacy robbery) has gotten a lot worse in east TN at least over the past five years or so.

I don't feel "unsafe" in Kingsport, especially during the day, but I wouldn't want to be walking the streets in the older parts of the city at night. I doubt anything would happen to a man minding his own business, but they are poorly lit and the city limits have some of the worst crime in the state. I don't feel "unsafe" even in some rural areas like Hawkins and Cocke Counties that have high crime rates, but again, I wouldn't dare knock on a door at night in these places.

Like anywhere, you should be okay as long as you are on the up-and-up and mind your own business, but the random drug related crime (robberies, burglaries, theft of property for drug money) can affect you.

[DubbleT]

When I lived in Memphis there were many areas that were definitely unsafe. Here in east TN I feel very safe, even the 'bad' areas seem fairly mild in comparison..
You might want to search the TN forums for older threads, as this has been previously discussed quite a bit.

[Memphis1979]

I feel 100% perfectly safe.

There are a lot of domestic violence cases out there, I wouldn't worry about them to much. I was in Downtown Nashville Saturday night and we walked a good ways down 3rd avenue. Me, Her, our 10 year old son, and our 2 year old daughter to go to the circus.

[Sigequinox]

I have been looking into it and I'm not as concerned as I was earlier. There were twice the number of murders in the city of Chicago in 2012 compared to the entire state of TN. About the same amount of murder last year in NYC alone and they are bragging about it being a "record low".

Over half of the violent crime is domestic, so, unless there is something in the TN air that is gonna make my wife start to throw our china at my head, I'm all set with that. The rank seems a little misleading after digging around the interwebz.

[septimus]

there were break ins on my street this weekend and I still feel safe. A little common sense goes a long way. Lock your car, keep your alarm on and have a big dog :-)

[Anony-Momma]

Originally Posted by septimus

there were break ins on my street this weekend and I still feel safe. A little common sense goes a long way. Lock your car, keep your alarm on and have a big dog :-)

Westhaven was hit over the weekend - did I read 10 break-ins?? The Franklin PD sent a reminder via social media that if your car is parked on a street, to remove valuables and to avoid leaving purses etc visible through a home window at night.

[85rx-7gsl-se]

All major cities tend to have crime. Just the nature of the beast. However, having lived even the "scary" Memphis for four years, I never had any serious concerns.

[Sigequinox]

Originally Posted by septimus

there were break ins on my street this weekend and I still feel safe. A little common sense goes a long way. Lock your car, keep your alarm on and have a big dog :-)

That would bother me. I have never [known] about any break ins on any street I have lived on. I own guns, which I generally like to keep out of the population of people who would steal them from my home. We also have 2 small dogs that we cherish and if I came home to them dead in the street because some POS broke into my house looking for iphone's and prescription drugs and left the front door open we would be devastated.

I hope you don't live in Franklin