Crime is NOT going down but Data reporting is
Just recently, the White House Press Secretary reported that violent crime is at a 50 year low.
If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
Violent crime has not gone down… reporting crime stats to the FBI has.
“In 2019, 89% of municipal police departments, consisting of 97% of the population, submitted crime data to the FBI but by 2021, the population represented in the crime data had dropped to 65% when just 63% of the agencies reported their crime. It hasn’t improved much since and in 2023, cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City did not submit their crime data.” ~Lies…Damn Lies…and Police Leaders
LA, NYC and Chicago… three of the highest crime cities… are not reporting crime data (as well as other cities). No wonder the stats are so misleading.
Part of the Problem
A few years ago, the FBI changed its reporting system and it took time for police departments to upgrade to the new system. Many were still using the old system to report their data. However, the FBI was still accepting data from both the old and new systems.
“Then it all changed in 2021. In an effort to fully modernize the system, the FBI stopped taking data from the old summary system and only accepted data through the new system. Thousands of police agencies fell through the cracks because they didn’t catch up with the changes on time.” ~ 4 Reasons We Should Worry About Missing Crime Data
According to the above linked article, 6097 agencies submitted no 2022 data — 32% of all police agencies.
“When the FBI released its 2021 national crime data last fall, it couldn’t say if crime went up, went down, or stayed the same. The FBI concluded that all three scenarios could be possible because of the gaps in the data collection.” ~ 4 Reasons We Should Worry About Missing Crime Data
Sort of a Schrödinger's Cat situation.
But that’s not the only thing skewing the data
“Reports have surfaced for years of agencies purposely downgrading violent crimes to misdemeanors and the pressure to do so has only increased in recent years.” ~ Lies…Damn Lies…and Police Leaders
Violent crimes are still running rampant. The FBI data is wrong. And the reporting system is broken.
Situational Awareness, Defensive Mindset and Self Defense Techniques are still as important as ever.
Be careful out there. It’s a violent world.
~ Shereen
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