By: Jamie Mock
Congressional Quarterly magazine recently announced the “Safest Cities in America,” an annual list compiled using crime statistics in cities with a population of 75,000 or more.
This year, Sugar Land went from the 11th “safest city” to the 12th, but was ranked as the safest city in Texas. Missouri City moved from 78 on the list nationally to 36.
The CQ Press book containing all the rankings is available for $70 – which almost feels like a “Who’s Who” of “safe cities.”
I was preparing a story to run on Fort Bend Now announcing the rankings when I noticed something interesting. Sugar Land’s overall crime rate is 24.68 per capita. Missouri City’s overall crime rate is 23.72 per capita.
So how is it that Sugar Land comes in a full 24 cities “safer” than Missouri City, when the per capita crime rate is actually higher?
I called Congressional Quarterly for an explanation, but my message has not been returned. I read the methodology used to create the rankings, and I am still confused.
From what I understand, and I am not a math expert, the magazine uses the same crimes reported by cities to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the Uniform Crime Report. – murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft and arson.
The FBI’s compilation of these numbers was known as the “Crime Index” until it was discontinued in 2004 because the FBI’s officials and advisory board of criminologists decided that due to the high number of larceny-thefts, the overall numbers were inflated and not a true indicator of crime.
According to Congressional Quarterly, larceny-thefts accounted for 59.5 percent of reported crime in 2009. The magazine does not calculate larceny-theft or arson for their rankings.
Congressional Quarterly compares each city with a population of more than 75,000 to the national average to come up with their “safest cities” list. Years ago, the magazine did a telephone poll and concluded that Americans were most concerned about crimes most likely to affect them, such as burglary.
The magazine then weighted the crimes that “mattered most” to Americans, with burglary weighted the highest and murder the lowest. That practice was discontinued a few years ago, and as far as I can tell, none of the crimes are now weighted.
So again – how did Sugar Land, with more crime per capita, come in so much higher on the list than neighboring Missouri City?
To further confuse matters, Missouri City uses “incident based” reporting, rather than Uniform Crime Reporting. The FBI coverts the numbers to UCR – it is unclear if Congressional Quarterly used the IBR numbers or UCR numbers to rank Missouri City.
Regardless, the numbers speak for themselves. Until I have spoken with someone from the magazine, I am not comfortable running a news story that I believe will beg the question, “why?”
When I can answer that question, I will run the story.
Interesting point by DonCentavos. Not sure if it is the HOA or the spirit of the neighborhood that is the deterent. Would make for a good study.
Speaking of First Colony, their board election is this week. If the write-in campaign by pool protestors works, there will be NO representation for Missouri City on the FCCA board. A couple thousand MOcity residents will be left out.
One of the write-ins wants to join his nextdoor neighbor who is already on the board. Isn’t that cozy?
The nominating committee selected two MOcity residents for the ballot, Anthony Maroulis and Howard Moline. If you want representation, you’d better hurry up and vote.
Better not depend on the Police in Misery city to protect you… they are so understaffed, they cant patrol the school zones… Myself, I protect my property with Mr 357.
http://www.khou.com/news/Crime-How-Houstons-Suburbs-Rank-94483884.html
I remember hearing about this earlier in the year. The builders must be at it again pressuring the city to fudge the numbers.
KHOU-
HOUSTON—Suburban communities care deeply about their public images. It’s often how they sell themselves to prospective homebuyers and companies looking to relocate: the image of having not just better schools than in Houston, but lower crime. But just how safe are the suburbs?
11News got four years of crime data (2006-2009) from 10 of the area’s biggest suburbs, then hired the National Institute for Computer-Assisted reporting to analyze it. The result: many of Houston’s suburbs do live up to their desired image, but some do not.
We ranked them high, low and in the middle.
Total crime was highest in Humble, Missouri City, Conroe and Baytown, which all had rates similar to the city of Houston. Lowest for total crime were Friendswood and Sugar Land. In the middle were Katy, Pasadena, Pearland and The Woodlands.
For violent crimes, the group with the highest rates included Conroe, Baytown, Humble and Missouri City. All had violent crime rates similar to Houston’s.
The lowest for violent crime were Sugar Land, Pasadena and Friendswood
I personally have come to believe that the level of crime is a direct result of how much the residents there care about their neighborhoods. HOA restrictions also impact the crime levels. Compare two large neighborhoods – Quail Valley and First Colony in Missouri City. Crime is almost twice as high in QV as compared to FC. Why is that? Take a drive down any of the streets in these two neighborhoods and you’ll see twice as many burglar alarm signs and motion sensitive lights in FC as in QV. HOA restrictions are more pronounced in FC than in QV and these cause residents to take better care of their yards and homes which deters criminals by making their presence stand out more. Sure, Missouri City skews the crime numbers but crime is mostly a product of residents not caring about their neighborhoods.