Portland Crime (Gresham: sex offenders, crime rate, house)

[HRW]

We just finished our second trip to Portland to decide whether it is a good place to retire. We really like the city, particularly the people, however we then came across a topic that we had not considered. It appears that Portland has an incredibly high crime rate, particularly property crimes and assault. I tried to access the Portland police website to see if the crime is restricted to certain areas, but could not do so for some unknown reason. We felt very safe here and are now wondering if we should reconsider the move. For perspective, for the past 20 years, we have lived in Europe and Asia in locations where crime or safety has not been an area of concern.

[Nell Plotts]

I am not aware that we have a 'very high crime rate'. Do you have any other city of comparable size to compare us to?

The most common property crime are car prowls. This happens when someone who is drug addicted goes looking for goods to sell. We have parked one of our cars on the street for 5 years and have never had it broken into. We just don't leave anything visible in the car.

Assaults are typically domestic, often a guy against a woman with whom he has (or has had) an intimate relationship. In many countries that is not recorded in crime statistics because it is regarded as a 'personal' matter.

In the Old Town neighborhood and in places where the homeless camp they do get in fights with each other. I am not aware of passers-by becoming involved.

There are two gangs who take pot-shots at one another, I think you can see the neighborhoods they frequent in the data. I wouldn't live within a block of any residence that has been involved.

In any city lock your doors and don't leave your garage door open.

[bler144]

Originally Posted by HRW

We just finished our second trip to Portland to decide whether it is a good place to retire. We really like the city, particularly the people, however we then came across a topic that we had not considered. It appears that Portland has an incredibly high crime rate, particularly property crimes and assault. I tried to access the Portland police website to see if the crime is restricted to certain areas, but could not do so for some unknown reason. We felt very safe here and are now wondering if we should reconsider the move. For perspective, for the past 20 years, we have lived in Europe and Asia in locations where crime or safety has not been an area of concern.

I'd be curious to see your source/dataset. Portland, like just about anywhere these days, has it's share of larceny and auto break-ins, but I wouldn't call it an epidemic. We lock our doors and take certain precautions when we're going to be away for multiple days, but haven't considered barring the windows.

And assault I hear about very rarely.

[HRW]

This is on Neighborhoodscout.com. I am not trying to come across as paranoid, but we were surprised to see these stats, particularly that 94% of US cities are safer than Portland. Anyway, we still want to move to Portland


Portland Crime Data
Crime Data FAQ

CRIME INDEX
6
(100 is safest)
Safer than 6% of
the cities
in the US.
Portland Annual Crimes
VIOLENT PROPERTY TOTAL
3,094 30,733 33,827
annual crimes per 1,000 residents
5.17 51.39 56.56
Violent Crime Comparison per 1,000 residents

NATIONAL MEDIAN
3.9
MY CHANCES OF BECOMING A VICTIM

in Portland
1 in 193
in Oregon
1 in 404
5.17
2.48
Portland Oregon
Population 598,037Portland violent crimes
MURDER RAPE ROBBERY ASSAULT
REPORT TOTAL 20 232 950 1,892
RATE PER 1,000 0.03 0.39 1.59 3.16
Population 313,914,040United States violent crimes
MURDER RAPE ROBBERY ASSAULT
REPORT TOTAL 14,827 84,376 354,522 760,739
RATE PER 1,000 0.05 0.27 1.13 2.42
Property Crime Rate Comparison per 1,000 residents

NATIONAL MEDIAN
28.6
MY CHANCES OF BECOMING A VICTIM

in Portland
1 in 19
in Oregon
1 in 31
51.39
32.24
Portland Oregon
Population 598,037Portland property crimes
BURGLARY THEFT MOTOR VEHICLE THEFT
REPORT TOTAL 4,481 22,666 3,586
RATE PER 1,000 7.49 37.90 6.00
Population 313,914,040United States property crimes
BURGLARY THEFT MOTOR VEHICLE THEFT
REPORT TOTAL 2,103,787 6,150,598 721,053
RATE PER 1,000 6.70 19.59 2.30
Crimes Per Square Mile

NATIONAL MEDIAN
39.3
229
60
Portland Oregon

[Leisesturm]

Originally Posted by HRW

This is on Neighborhoodscout.com. I am not trying to come across as paranoid, but we were surprised to see these stats, particularly that 94% of US cities are safer than Portland. Anyway, we still want to move to Portland

... ... your comparisons are Europe and Asia. You have to know there is Europe and there is Europe and ditto for Asia, right? You also have to know that the U.S. in general is very much more violent and has a much higher incidence of the various crimes that go into compiling safety indices as European cities with an equivalent sophistication, right? If you looked at a town like Orenco on CrimeMapper you probably wouldn't want to live there. There is just a "thing" about raw numbers... ... its impossible to describe it. But if you were to visit Orenco and spend some time there you would definitely want to live there. I also do not think that the numbers are saying that 94% of cities are safer than Portland! That's the other thing about raw numbers, the interpretation. I suggest you just forget the numbers and visit Portland.

H

[skiffrace]

HRW:
It appears that the statistics you quote use the city of Portland (population 598,037) only.

It does (like any big city) have higher concentration of crime, especially if you compare it to the US in general (including small towns and rural areas, with crime rates near 0)
Even in Portland, the crime is highly concentrated in some specific neighborhoods, mostly in/near downtown and on the east side.

Here is the crime map of Portland:


Even this map does not tell the true story. As Leisesturm pointed out, statistics can be misleading.
If you visit some of the "high-crime" areas of the map, you'll find them quite pleasant and not threatening at all.

As others pointed out, petty property crime is the main issue.

If you are concerned with violent crime, there are only a few selected parts of North Portland and Gresham you'd better avoid, and even there the violent crime is a sporadic occurrence between people who know each other.


Moreover, Portland metro area is 2.3 million. Most of the suburbs are as as peaceful and crime-free as you can imagine.

If you want crime statistics for a specific neighborhood, go to http://portlandmaps.com/ , enter the address and then click on the "Crime" link on the top-right menu.

[Zaba]

"Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics".
You won't get a remotely accurate portrait of a place comparing raw statistics.

That said, yeah. Don't compare the US with lots of places in Western Europe. There is more crime here and it's statistically less safe.

[Nell Plotts]

"lots of places in Western Europe" have higher crime rates than the US. You really can't generalize.

One factor in the US is that in our culture we seem to think a gun is the solution to crime when gun accidents actually cause a lot of deaths and injuries usually of children.

[HRW]

To all
Thanks for the comments. I was not attempting to compare Portland to the US or Asia, I wanted to convey the fact that we had not lived in the US for some years and due to this, our perspective was not the same as someone living in the US. We just completed our second trip to Portland and found the city and people to be outstanding. We hope to move there as soon as we can find the right house to buy

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Portland does have a problem, that might be Portland's alone. It's not been a problem anywhere else that I've ever been near.

Foreign national sex offenders, especially child molesters, have decided that Portland is a safe place to gather and practice their criminal activities. Anyone who watches the news has seen it. Foreign nationals attempting to force children into cars and almost never getting caught. Foreign nationals committing sexual assaults. I suspect that they have not entered this country legally. No one seems to be able to catch them which indicates that they are illegals who live outside of the system.

I don't think that people of that nationality are normally any more violent than people of any other nationality, so there is something about Portland that has attracted the rapists. Maybe something about the citizens being less paranoid and less watchful, plus the police unable to catch them. At any rate, be careful about allowing young children to walk unattended on the street.