Saturday, August 18, 2007

Where is Crime in Annapolis Happening?

Encouraged by an emailer today, I did some research on where most of the crimes around here are happening. I did this by using the daily email report from the police department, which you can get by clicking here. I recorded the crime if it was a felony--I tried to exclude 'citations' such as driving violations--and the location.

(Disclaimer: I am not a criminologist. I may have mis-categorized which crimes are felonies and which are not. But my point will be the same. I am also not a statistician, but this math is simple enough that I can guarantee accuracy.)

(Personal reflection: I just realized that I am not many things. In fact, the only claims to fame I have are being able to make good crab cakes and being a moderately handsome blogger.)

I have come to a conclusion, and I don't care if it is not politically correct, because it is right:

If we want to get rid of the crime, we should get rid of public housing.

Of the crimes that I looked at, 66% of them occurred in or very near public housing developments. So, 66% of the crimes are committed by about 10%* of the population.

(*I have heard numbers saying that the public housing popluation in the city is actually 1 in 6 (16.7%). But, HACA's web site claims to have 2,2oo residents, plus a couple hundred more as a result of section 8 vouchers, which I do not understand because I have not researched. The city of Annapolis population is about 37,000.)

The mayor has frequently cited the ratio of officers per thousand citizens as a measure of how well the police department is staffed. But, if the majority of crimes happen in public housing areas--which they do (I will work on a citation), and Annapolis has more public housing per capita than anywhere else in the country--which it does (ibid), than that freggin' ratio is useless.

I hope that somebody can actually prove me wrong, because to do this would require a level of statistics that we can use to really analyze the problem, and figure out a solution. Apparently, though, we will have to do this without the help of the mayor.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I dont think that should happen i say this because where are they going to live they need a place to live just like you. So what they dont have alot of money every one needs a place to stay no matter what they do or how they live, but dont just push them out to some one else at least try to help them to me i think that is races. so please think about other people before you just only think about your self and im only sixteen and I live in D.C. and i dont like the way you are trying to push them out but think you for reading.