Preservation officials had asked for a meeting with the police to discuss the erroneous perception that the downtown historic areas have high crime rates. Not so, police said, pointing to crime maps and statistics pinned to the meeting room walls. A list of criminal problem areas did not include any of the historic areas Preservation is involved in. You can check it out yourself at the city's Web site, where crime statistics are searchable by address. Click on the Police2Citizen link and you'll get a new screen with crime data, including the actual incident reports. The data are available thanks to the department's new OSSI law enforcement software. You can also request a daily bulletin of all crime reports for that day. (A few sensitive ongoing investigations and sex crimes are withheld from public view. It's a pretty amazing development, considering the difficulty in the old days of going to the police station and copying crime or accident reports.
The point, for Preservation officials, is that Wilson's crime rate is relatively low, and little of the crime that does occur happens in the historic areas where Preservation is focusing its efforts. Downtown is one of the lowest-crime areas of the city. Homeownership is one key. Neighborhood involvement is another. More transient, mostly rental areas, even in new developments, are more likely to have crime problems. Homeowners, who have a financial stake in the neighborhood and who expect to be around for the long term, are more likely to take an interest in what's going on around them. They're more likely to call in suspicious activities, and that helps police solve and prevent crimes.
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5 comments:
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....dang, I wish this had been yesterday. Went bike riding last night, 10:30pm-11:45pm and there was a diesel delivery truck backed in at the frame business beside Towe Ins and the western siz ~11:40. I thought should I call? The truck was running and the lights were on so I thought well they are not trying to hide so I let it go.
No more. I am going to call all the time now. I already call more than I think i should but from now own no hesitation!
Great and timely post! Thanks!
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own=on
...i need to slow down and proofread better. My bad.
A prominent story in the WDT today claims otherwise. One of the crimes reported apparently happened in preservation's dominion. Unless that's an erroneous perception?
To Anonymous3: Neither I nor the police ever claimed that there is NO crime in the historic districts or downtown, only that the downtown and historic districts are relatively less crime-prone than other areas of the city. The story in the Wilson Times addresses three crimes, one on Raleigh Road Parkway near the western edge of the city, one on West Nash Street in an area surrounded by recent development, and one in the 500 block of Lee Street. Without seeing a detailed map, I'm not sure whether the 500 block of Lee Street is in the Old Wilson Historic District, but I know it is not in the "Wilson Mile" that Preservation of Wilson is focusing on. Regardless, one incident out of three in one day hardly disproves the police department's statistics. As I said in the post, the statistics are on line. See for yourself.
If it isn't in their Mile it sure the heck is close!
More to the point, focusing on ONE area, if it's at the detriment of other areas, is not a great concept. Why can't we be just one Wilson?
You can check stat comparisons at bestplaces.net The crime rate is higher then NYC.
If anything, we should be giving our fine Police officers MORE RESOURCES to fight crime! But we realize Wilson has lopsided funding priority issues.
We can only hope preservation doesn't intend an attempt at tweaking public perception about crime rates only in their zone. (whatever that is, it changes every week). Especially if the intent is to make themselves look relevent. Which is what we suspect.
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