🚀 go-pugleaf

In maintaining the crime rate status, stupid (you know who you are)! ;-)

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Crime ranking played down 

Dallas No. 1 again; officials, experts wary of comparing statistics 


08:07 AM CDT on Saturday, April 22, 2006

By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News 

For the eighth year in a row, Dallas had the highest crime rate among U.S. cities with more than a million people last year. But in the numbers game, comparing apples with oranges - or the Big Apple with Big D - may be a fruitless endeavor. 

"Awww, it's my favorite story in your paper every year," said Mayor Laura Miller. Like other city officials, criminologists and crime statistics experts, she greeted the news with a healthy dose of skepticism. 

Burglaries, more than any other category, helped keep Dallas at the top after an analysis of 2005 crime statistics based on crimes relative to population. 

But last year, crimes reported in Dallas fell sharply, with murders down about 19 percent and overall crime lower by 5 percent. 

So which is it? Is Dallas among the most dangerous cities in America, or is it a crime-fighting success story in the making? 

Both, say police and crime experts. 

"We are trained to believe the notion that crime statistics have a relative value," said Alex del Carmen, a University of Texas at Arlington criminology professor. "That's not to say they are regarded as the ultimate truth in terms of crime." 

"Dallas has a crime problem, no question," said Police Chief David Kunkle. "Is Dallas the most unsafe big city in the United States? The answer is no." 

The analysis is based on preliminary numbers that will become part of the FBI's annual Uniform Crime Reports, a national survey of about 17,000 police agencies published in the fall.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/042206dnmettopcrime.218f9634.html