S. Padre Is. - High Crime rates (year round/spring break? (Rockport: crime rate, live)

[LindaIL]

We are considering a trip over Thanksgiving to S. Padre Is., but just noticed the incredibly high crime rates and are Very concerned: //www.city-data.com/city/South-...and-Texas.html

Can anyone explain the huge crime rates, especially for thefts? Only 2% of cities in the U.S. have lower crime rates than S.P.I.

Can someone please clarify? Is this more of a monthly spike certain times of the year, like March & April, due to spring break? Or is it pretty equal year round?

Thanks.

[HappyTexan]

Go a bit further north to Rockport or Port Aransas.

[LindaIL]

Any others?

[TXNGL]

Spring break is the only answer I can come up with for such numbers. I've traveled there most months of the year but avoid Spring Break like the plague. November should be lovely. Gulf might be a little cool for swimming.

[theone33]

South Padre def has crime which isn't spoken much of because of tourist money.

[HappyTexan]

Just a bit south is a Mexican drug cartel hub. Two rival cartels there as well.
So maybe the crime isn't on the island itself but the surrounding area ?

[rynetwo]

I can tell you we go every two years or so and we have NEVER had any issue at all.

[jackalope48]

Crime rate is crimes reported per unit of residential population. As a result a place with low residential population will have a higher crime rate because crime rate doesn't take into account tourists or workers who commute into the area. For example:

A town has a population of 10,000 who all live and work there and no tourism. It has 100 crimes reported. It's crime rate is 1% 100/10000.

A tourist area has a population of 500 people 2000 people who work there but live elsewhere and averages 7500 tourists a day. (10000 people a day on average). It also has 100 crimes reported. It's crime rate is 20% 100/500.

Same number of overall people crime rate 20 times what it is in the all residential area.

This is how people get the incorrect impression Downtown areas are unsafe(they have large workforce population but low residential population).

In the specific case of South Padre I'd say it's pretty clearly because it's a tourist area and tourists aren't counted. It has higher than average educational attainment and a police force that is large for it's residential population(five times larger than average).

You also should consider the other side of the statistic which is crimes reported. If your car is broken into you are more likely to report it in a city with a police department than in a place that doesn't have one. They in turn are far more likely to report it to the feds who collect the data. A larger police force is also more likely to make arrests or catch criminals committing a crime which generates a statistic. In the case of SPI I'd bet they get a lot of petty theft, drunken assault, public intoxication, and car break ins targeting tourists than places that don't have the tourist trade they do. If you ever see a Texas beach during Spring Break or Summer vacation it's more a question what level of offense someone gets ticketed or arrested for than whether crime is occurring. As a result a more active police department will have a higher crime rate for choosing a higher level of enforcement.

[LindaIL]

Thanks everyone for your responses! I'm thinking the majority of the crime would be during spring break craziness and summer tourism. Hopefully, that explains it!

[theone33]

Originally Posted by HappyTexan

Just a bit south is a Mexican drug cartel hub. Two rival cartels there as well.
So maybe the crime isn't on the island itself but the surrounding area ?

Get real.