Crime report should serve as wake-up call to community

Florence has the country’s sixth-highest metropolitan crime rate, according to a Nov. 24 report by CQ Press, an agency that publishes books and directories.
That gives us pause for several reasons.

One is that by “Florence,” CQ means the Florence Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is made up of Florence and Darlington counties and their municipalities — not just the city of Florence.
Another is that, according to Florence Police Chief Anson Shells, such crime rankings typically are based on the number of incident reports submitted each year by law enforcement agencies to the FBI. He said those reports might or might not represent an actual crime.

Say, for example, a dog jumps on a neighbor’s vehicle and scratches it. The responding law enforcement officer might list that as a case of vandalism, for lack of a better category.
“Cities are just as different as people are,” Shells said, “and the fact that these rankings are based solely on incident reports that we submit to the FBI, I think, leaves out a lot when it comes to looking at the true crime picture in a city.”

The police chief said he thinks a better method for obtaining a city’s true crime rate would be to take the actual number of calls for service that a law enforcement agency receives and compare it with the population living in the jurisdiction.

CQ’s latest rankings use data, including murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft, from the FBI report, “Crime in the United States 2007.” The company therefore contends the totals are fit for comparison because cities tally crime using the FBI’s standardized process.

The FBI, however, warns against using its data for city-to-city comparisons because cities compile statistics differently.

People can quibble all they want about the report and its findings, but one thing’s for sure: rightly or wrongly, it makes our area look bad. Say someone looking to move to the Florence MSA looks it up on an Internet search to find out more about the area. Odds are this latest report will come up in that search. If that person’s research on crime in the area stops there, it isn’t likely he or she will proceed to make a home here.

That, perhaps, is the key. This report should not be considered a definitive measure of an area’s crime rates. For details, look beyond the numbers and the convenient categories of this report, and decide for yourself what they really mean.

Do Florence and Darlington counties have a violent crime problem? Absolutely. But what, to you, constitutes a violent crime? Do you count assaults, both physical and verbal? Are violent crimes perpetrated more among strangers than acquaintances? Ask your local police chief or sheriff for answers, and peruse the incident reports (remember, those are public records, and you have the same right as any journalist to view them). Find out, and then be the judge.

Some argue CQ’s latest report is nothing more than an attempt to simplify an issue — crime — that isn’t so simple to explain. They’re right.

It should serve as a wake-up call to the community, though. You are just as responsible for your own safety as anyone living anywhere else is.

As Shells and other local law enforcement officers say time and time again, they cannot protect the community without the community’s help and support.