Crime in and around SLC?

[CCSLC]

Originally Posted by Tim Tim Tim

The crime rate here is pretty low overall but areas to stay away from would be west valley and south salt lake mostly. south salt lake typically known as rosepark and glenndale areas. Honestly though the crime still isnt even that bad in those areas.

It's true; crime is quite low overall, though South Salt Lake and some areas of West Valley have higher violent crime. Property crime is higher in more affluent areas, like Cottonwood Heights, Holladay, the Avenues.

But one important clarification:
South Salt Lake is not Rose Park and Glendale. Rose Park and Glendale are neighborhoods within Salt Lake City proper, west of downtown. South Salt Lake is its own city, with its own government, located (surprise) just south of Salt Lake City.

[Ghungroo]

I read here occasionally but haven't posted all that much. I decided to post tonight because I've really been interested in this particular topic lately as I'll be moving from a quiet little neighborhood in East Millcreek/Canyon Rim to an apartment complex in Taylorsville. When I first started to look at crime stats online I started freaking out! The street I would be moving onto in the past few months had multiple stolen vehicles, burglaries, drug problems. I suddenly felt like the area I had visited many times and felt okay in was a festering crimehole unrivaled in the entire state. But when I then went and looked at the incidents in the area around the "quaint" little residential street I am now, where people take care of their lawns and females run alone at night; I found vehicle thefts, burglaries, drug incidents...it hit me that these kinds of things happen everywhere, and there is no point in getting scared over a few incidents. The key is the frequency and severity of the incidents (robbery vs. break in, aggravated vs. simple assault), not their existence.

I then started talking to people I knew that lived in the general area I'm moving to. The consensus was "I feel safe where I am, but there are some sketchy areas over on X." One old couple near the Valley Fair Mall (normally considered a very bad part of town) don't always lock their doors at night! Another person lives in a part of Taylorsville I saw had higher incidents of breakins and robberies but loved where she was. So I wondered... when you live somewhere for a long time or grow up there, is your "safety" judgment biased?

I'm starting to think that most people decide how "safe" they feel based not on data or unbiased information but instead on reputation, advice of well-meaning family and friends, etc. I notice that when driving in a “bad” area, people tend to notice “bad” things more even though those things are also in their neighborhood. The clunky cars that they give a passing glance to in Holladay, for example, are suddenly considered a “prime” example of the “trashy locals” if seen while driving in West Valley City. In addition, most crimes that are reported/committed don't end up on the news. You don't hear about every vehicle that is stolen or the aggravated assault in the apartment complex down the street or the drug bust on the next block- the local media just couldn't cover all of these stories.

So I went on a little research journey and was quite surprised. The site I love the most is crimereports.com. Nearly all the police departments in the Salt Lake City Area share their crime reports with the site, but the trick is getting all the incidents to show up. I had a really hard time getting Taylorsville and West Jordan’s to show up- they would only appear when I zoomed in certain ways. The key is looking at the bottom of the map and making sure all the police departments of the cities you are viewing are listed- if they aren't, the incidents are not showing for some reason and you need to move a few blocks east or change the zoom or search name.

I also wondered if the site really contains a true picture of all the crimes reported. I know that some incidents I saw on the Taylorsville Police Department’s website didn’t show up on that street in Taylorsville, so it made me wonder how the data is filtered.

I wish I could share the screencaps I made of all the different types of crime valley wide, but I believe the site’s materials are copyrighted. So I’ll describe it here in text form! Here’s what I found when looking at data from Downtown Salt Lake all the way down to South Jordan and Draper from February to August 2009. (Note that I do think the entire greater SLC downtown area is underreported on the site in some categories- maybe a data glitch?)

Robberies - These happen in all cities! The areas with the most concentrations were:

• South Salt Lake (the square area under the I-80/I-15 interchange to 900 E and 4000 s)
• East West Valley City (from 3900 S to the 201 freeway)
• West Kearns (west of 4500 W)
• Midvale and Fort Union directly under the I-215 freeway to Highland.
• Southwest Taylorsville (4700 to 6500 S between I-215 and a little west of Bangerter)

What’s interesting is there were some small pockets of robberies in Holladay around the intersection of Highland and 4800 S and in Riverton at the intersection of 12600 S and 1700 W; both of these cities are usually considered “safe” and “upper class.” Every other area of the city, even Draper, had some isolated robberies. I'm sure that Salt Lake City's robberies didn't show up properly because I only saw 2 and that can't be right!

Breaking and Entering – These are in every part of the valley, but what surprised me was the high concentration of breakins in the East Millcreek/Canyon Rim area east of Highland! It was about the same as Kearns. (Maybe the South Salt Lake crime crowd takes the easy trip a few blocks east?) South Salt Lake around 3900 S was also high, and there was also moderate concentrations in South Jordan and Draper along 12300 South, Holladay around Cottonwood Mall, and even Herriman has quite a few! Surprisingly, incidents in Rosepark and Glendale were average and less than ALL the areas mentioned above!

Vehicle Theft – I think most people do not understand how widespread this is. EVERY city in the greater Salt Lake Valley has many, many incidents, yet you don’t hear about it much on the news. However, there are areas where the incidents are very concentrated:

• Salt Lake City proper from Redwood Road to 900 E and especially north of 400 S
• Midvale southeast of the I-215/I-80 interchange to 900 E and 9000 S
• South Salt Lake southeast of the I-80/I-15 interchange east to Highland and south to 4500 S
• Kearns
• West Valley City right around 3500 S and Redwood Road.

All the others areas of the valley have evenly-spread but sparser incidents, even in Cottonwood Heights, east Sandy, Canyon Rim, South Jordan, Sugarhouse, the Avenues… everywhere!

Vehicle Recoveries – Curiously, these are almost exclusively in West Valley City north of 4100 S from 5000 W to I-15, in South Salt Lake west of 700 E, and in Midvale just east of I-15, with a few incidents in West Jordan and sparsely around the rest of the valley. I assume this means that these places are thieves lives and/or the places where the stolen cars are taken to.

Drugs – The greatest incidents were in:

• Downtown Salt Lake City
• South Salt Lake
• Midvale
• West Sandy west of 1300 E
• South Jordan 10600S/Redwood area
• Kearns

There are some isolated pockets in Riverton at the 12600S/Redwood area. Surprisingly, West Valley City and Taylorsville were more evenly distributed than the places mentioned.

Again, the accuracy of this information above depends on the accuracy of the data on crimereports.com, but I think it seems pretty accurate. It also dispels the myths that "all of West Valley City is the pit of the earth" and the "no crime happens south of 9000 S." Specific areas you see reappear in the lists above are probably best avoided.

I also had some fun comparing the Salt Lake Valley to other big cities. Now this *really* gives you some perspective. For example, according to crimereports.com, in the past 7 months the midvalley swath of SLC (WVC, Taylorsville, Murray, Holladay, Midvale) had 153 robberies, Central Chicago had 460, and Albuquerque, New Mexico had at least 500, and Reno, Nevada had 179. When looking at other cities in Utah, in the past 7 months Provo had 76 vehicle thefts, 289 breaking/entering, 20 robberies, and 2 homicides. "Sweet little" St. George had 94 vehicle thefts, 334 breaking/entering, 7 robberies. These aren't exactly accurate I'm sure but show general trends.

Okay, that's enough statistical fun for one night! I highly recommend you check out crimereports.com and have as much fun as I did. I'm really interested in hearing more from the poster Tolligirl over in the "Magna and West Valley City" thread regarding research on these statistics: Magna and West Valley area

Anyone else have thoughts on any the above? Experience with these areas? Thoughts on the stats?