Annapolis Capital Punishment

CP would like to draw your attention to a recent post by Annapolis Politics (AP)regarding crime trends and statistics in Annapolis http://annapolispolitics.blogspot.com/2007/10/capital-and-crime-report.html as well as a study undertaken by local resident and former Housing Authority Executive Director and local activist Dennis Conti.

AP Publisher Brian Gill does a more detailed analysis of crime than CP has undertaken and he and CP have both been reviewing the study compiled by Dennis Conti. Please read the AP analysis. CP agrees with AP that, yep--we got a big problem. The police records tell it--they don't lie. The data come from the FBI.

We owe thanks to Dennis Conti for researching and presenting these facts.

CP continues to bemoan the fact that our Mayor does not exhibit any real leadership, our City Council members, in general, are not speaking out and some are arguing among themselves. Most of us rely on The Capital to report the situation to us, but it seems limited in its ability to give it the proper amount of time and space needed.

CP will just point to a few of the facts drawn by Mr. Conti, taken directly from the police reports.

If we use the number 1.00 as the national average for a particular crime, here is how Annapolis stacks up (note: "Annapolis expanded" includes adjustments for USNA, St Johns and hotels and adds about 9000 persons to the base) These data are only for what are categorized as Part 1 crimes :

Crime rates in Annapolis and "Annapolis expanded" as compared with the national average rate of 1.00.

murder 3.4
Annapolis expanded 2.7

rape 1.2
Annapolis expanded .9

robbery 4.2
Annapolis expanded 3.4

aggravated assault 2.5
Annapolis expanded 2.0

burglary 1.9
Annapolis expanded 1.5

larceny 1.6
Annapolis expanded 1.3

mv theft 1.3
Annapolis expanded 1.0

total 1.8
Annapolis expanded 1.4

In others words, we have 4.2 times the incidents of robbery in Annapolis than the national per capita average and 1.8 times the overall crime. Stats for "Annapolis expanded" are a bit lower.

Hagerstown is about the same size of Annapolis and it comes out to 1.3 times the national average, while Frederick, somewhat larger than Annapolis, comes out at 1.0, or right in line with national averages. Therefore, our crime rates are higher than the national averages, in some cases, remarkably higher, and are also higher than two similarly-sized Maryland cities as well.

If one looks at trend data of absolute numbers, taken from 1990 to 2006, the numbers show signifcant rises and falls, and to draw any general conclusions would take more statistical analysis. Also, one would need to compare overall population, but if CP is correct, it has remained relatively steady, with perhaps a slight rise. One issue that must be understood is the impact of the relatively recent influx of new Hispanic residents, whose numbers may be difficult to ascertain.

A few interesting numbers emerge. There were between 1 and 5 murders per year from 1990 to 2005, but we had 7 in 2006 and at least that number this year to date. There were more robberies in 2006 than in any other year since 1990. However, overall crime numbers have dropped although burglary and robbery have gone way up since 2001. According to Conti's report, the overall crime rate drop is due to a decrease in larceny (theft) which asks increases in other Part 1 crime. Overall, incidents of larceny account for more than 50% of reported crime.

Okay, so with the knowledge that we are understaffed by some 20+ police oficers, what does Mayor Moyer propose? Changing the police shifts, buying some infernal Segway motorized chariots and a horse. And she is the one who asked, "What is it I'm missing?"