Sarasota makes list of the 100 most dangerous cities in the US (Pensacola: spring break, crime)

[gypsychic]

Originally Posted by Frida7

I know it doesn't matter to you, it's obvious.

I live here NOW. I've also lived in many other states, and out of this country. I have no financial interest in how this area is viewed. I'm a disabled woman in a wheelchair, and while I, as everyone who addressed you here know full well there is crime, I feel as safe as one can in this day & age, you are being an alarmist at best, a troll at worst.

I agree with Frida ^^^.

I live here NOW, am well aware the area has some crime, as does EVERY OTHER PLACE I HAVE EVER LIVED.

Interesting how someone who doesn't live here anymore feels the need to come onto this thread (multiple times no less) and "warn everyone" what a horrible crime-filled hell-hole we live in.

[Sunshine Rules]

I have been observing the discussion on this thread and debated about whether I should respond as I know some would say my response is based on what I do for a living. However, I am a 30 year long resident of the area, my husband has been here since the mid 1960's and the discussion IS about my hometown.

First, I checked out that list of 100 cities. I noted that Carbondale, Illinois, came in at #64. Carbondale, for those who are unfamiliar with the town, is basically a small town with 2 main employers, the coal industry and Southern Illinois University. The student population of the university exceeds the local residential population for 9 months of the year. The students are not counted as residents.

Fort Myers at #43 and Daytona Beach at #34 are cities similiar to Sarasota in that they too have large winter populations of visitors.

From what I read on the website that put out this report, they took the crime stats and factored in the RESIDENT population to come up with their rankings.

For those not familiar with Sarasota, the actual city limits are quite small, approximately 15 square miles and a residential population of about 53,000. The county of Sarasota accounts for a population of about 382,000 -- with a majority of them living in the "urban" area of Sarasota running from the north county line all the way south to the Venice area. Sarasota county is large. The city of Sarasota makes up approximately 3% of the total land area of the county.


If the report in question had looked at the COUNTY statistics on crime, they would have found that overall crime in Sarasota COUNTY is actually down 16% 2012 vs 2011.

Violent crimes, burglary, larceny, car theft are all down in Sarasota county. So are violent crimes such as murder, robbery and aggravated assault. According the the sheriff department's report, burglary is down more than 26% and fraud is down almost 28%.

Sarasota County Crime down in 2012 - My Suncoast: Local News



The city of Sarasota's leaders are well aware of the crime statistics of the city and the long term issues within specific neighborhoods. No one has mentioned so far in this thread that the city has just hired a new police chief, Bernadette DiPino. DiPino comes to Sarasota from Ocean City, MD, which is also a waterfront community that deals each year with a large influx of visitors. A recent article in the Sarasota Herald mentioned that one of the deciding factors for hiring DiPino was that she is a certified policing instructor (with a strong background in training officers) for the community policing model that Sarasota officials want to see implemented in specific Sarasota neighborhoods that has been so successful in other cities in the northeast. City officials stated that one of the keys to reducing crime within the city of Sarasota is to create better communication between the residents of those troubled neighborhoods and city police officers.

Dipino has only been on the job for a couple of weeks. It will be interesting to see what changes she implements and consequently what changes occur to the city crime statistics going into the future.



I took a statistics course in college. One thing the professor stressed has stayed with me all of these years. She said the hardest part of doing statistical analysis is not the gathering of the data, it is the interpretation of the data that is gathered.

[La-La land]

From what I see on the Neighborhood Scout site, Longboat Key had zero murder, zero rape, zero robbery, but 2 assaults last year and statistically that gives it a crime index of 59. Which means only 59/100 in terms of 'safety'.

[Rushmore]

Originally Posted by La-La land

From what I see on the Neighborhood Scout site, Longboat Key had zero murder, zero rape, zero robbery, but 2 assaults last year and statistically that gives it a crime index of 59. Which means only 59/100 in terms of 'safety'.

I think they put it on lockdown.

[safak]

I didn't look into the logistics of this study, but just by guessing..heres my problem with it.

One key point that can't be overlooked = Different size and style of cities treat things differently.
just as an example.. Where I live in Pittsburgh, we have a 'nightlife' neighborhood with 100+ bars on one street. It is a nighly occurance to see brawls, 1000's of drunken incidents that in this particular area, aren't going to be pursued and charged.

A smaller or quieter place, that doesn't have such an area probably wouldn't let things like this go overlooked.

So while there might be 100 fights, where 7 of them could be bad enough to actually be reported in a place that is more tolerant of idiots.

compared to a place that has 15 fights, where 12 of them are charged/reported, which is actually safer? according the the stats, the first place is..but in reality its the second place by a landslide.

[Bookratt]

Top factors for crime: poverty, large concentration of wealth, major tourist destination/resort area (which brings into focus and conflict these two items); major transport hub (airport, subway, bus or train station); large numbers of seasonal or transient labor, or influx of like, moveable, population such as students, snowbirds, amusement park, farm or water based pursuits. Sarasota has all that in spades, and it's per capita crime rate is high as a result.

Looking for accurate, unbiased, backed-up stats? Check out where the UN, WHO, NCIC, Federal US Census info and other reports have been compiled and aggregated; stats posted for our country and others, by global region. The US version compares state to state, vs country to country.

Most accurate rates are stated as per capita (by defined head count), rather than just total numbers being listed. In other words, of 100,000 people in each country, how many of that number of people in each country, were victims of that crime. We're a nation of 330,000,000 people, and if you have 30,000 embezlements here, that is nothing compared to a country of 30,000,000 people which also has the same number of 30,000 embezlement crimes there. It is much more likely you will be a victim of crime in country number two despite its size, than in ours.

Google nation and master to find it.

[blueherons]

Once again, they take ALL crimes, including those committed by tourists and divide by permenent population.

It skews the numbers.

[Rushmore]

Originally Posted by blueherons

Once again, they take ALL crimes, including those committed by tourists and divide by permenent population.

It skews the numbers.

You are wasting your time. NOBODY seems to be able to understand this aspect of mathematics.

Or at least they don't want to, for some weird reason.

[photoman_6]

well, that's 15 minutes of my life i'll never get back.

[touretteboy65]

Originally Posted by nphomeowner

No one denies the beauty and the weather but if you don't think there is crime your head is in the sand. Listen to the news, it's always something. Not just here, it's everywhere. It doesn't mean people don't love it here, it just means they are realistic Those that see no crime will probably be victims of it at some point.

It's in the news because the media thrives, lives, dedicates itself to, is dependent on CRIME. If they dedicated themselves to reporting positive things, news of value, local events, etc., they would find themselves out of work. Do yourself a favor and watch "The Big Bang Theory" or "Seinfeld" at 6:00 pm and have a laugh, or, just watch the news and install another deadbolt on your front door.