Violent Crime Decreases in Toledo

More homeowners with guns? ;)

^^^ Amen OK.

Every State that introduces concealed carry laws and strengthens their Castle Doctrine has seen a drop in violent crime and home invasions. Criminals love soft targets.

The most violent cites (LA & Chi Town) have the toughest gun laws, it's not rocket science.

I'm assuming that this is based on crimes that had reports filed. Sadly, that doesn't really mean there were less, just less put on paper and tracked.

Second, I love how Navarre quickly makes this a political point about how reducing cops caused and increase in burglaries. The study was about the drop in 2010, but he used it as a place to support his "less cops = more crime" point from 2009. Using that theory can we believe with less firemen we'd get more arson fires? Did cops actually "prevent" crime or report it?
I'd hate to believe that to prove their point, the police could work harder to record more burglaries and be "less than efficient" at preventing them. I don't want to believe it, but I didn't want to believe cops did drugs and drove drunk, but it happens.

I would like to know why Toledo was included and Columbus was not. Is this based on city size or what?

Most burglaries are not reported. I work in real estate and just came from a property I have under contract. It is owned by Fannie Mae and my client has been trying to close on it for 4 months. Everytime we get a clear to close it has been hit. It is now missing the furnace and HWT. Currently there are 542 Fannie Mae owned properties that are vacant, most of which have been broken into. Cops aren't smarter, the criminals are. It's real easy to look up where the empty houses are online and just break into those. These are not reported to the police, hence smaller crime rates.

"Torture numbers long enough and they will tell you anything you want to hear."

Interesting point HickoryG. I have heard a lot about the empty houses around town being raided for anything and everything. If you have homeowner's insurance and want to make a claim, the burglary is reported; otherwise, the insurer won't pay.

Likely in all states (Ohio included), burglary requires an occupied structure. Therefore, theft from an unoccupied home would not be considered "violent crime" for purposes of this report. Maybe our Toledo criminals are happy with stealing from all of these empty homes we have, instead of taking bigger risks.

DBW, have there been any pro-gun rights laws enacted in Ohio since 2007? I don't think there have been and to conclude that gun rights is the only factor affecting violent crime is oversimplifying. The underlying causes are a lot more complex.

BSwell of course there are a litany of other issues, but the fantasy that disarming law abiding citizens will drop the crime rate has been proven to be a fallacy.

BSwell of course there are a litany of other issues, but the fantasy that disarming law abiding citizens will drop the crime rate has been proven to be a fallacy.

Crime also doesn't drop simple because of conceal carry either. The crime rate has dropped all over for the most part in places with conceal carry at basically the same rate of decline as those without.

It’s was wash for both sides. We’re not statically speaking better or worse off for having conceal carry.

That said, if carrying a gun is what takes to put hair on your pubes, have at it.

dbw8906, I have doubts that a change in conceal carry laws/castle doctrine have a quick statistical impact like we are seeing. Where is the proof? On the other hand the shifting population statistics seem to have a very strong connection. Lucas Country is losing population while Wood and Ottawa are gaining.

http://www.toledoblade.com/Police-Fire/2011/05/26/Cities-found-leading-suburbs-in-crime-drop.html

Glasscity - I am more than happy to discuss the matter, and I present finding by University of MD Professor John Lott http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=523002 (Paper in the PDF).

The shifting Section 8 residents away from inner city high rise "project" buildings and integrating them into HUD rentals is the largest reason for crime moving to the "burbs".

crime went down. I can now leave my doors unlocked, keep large amounts of cash on me and walk after dark. Yeah!

Is this study/report really supposed to mean something? To me, it's a waste of money paid to people who collected this data and it's misleading to those who read it.

so you'd rather not know crime went down?

How is it misleading?

Saying you can't buy into the stats because not all crimes are reported is bogus. If not all crimes are reported, wouldn't it be necessary to just assume that it's consistent in all cities? Or is every other city just really good at the honor system, and they have 100% reporting?

And yes, this report means something. It's funny that you're trying to blow it off like this, because you know it damages the credibility of your usual rally cry that Toledo is way too unsafe to be worth saving.

It's completely worth saving as everyone deserves to live in peace, but everyone has to take part in that reclamation and take responsibility for yourself and the actions we take with each other.Liberty, Freedom, and ultimately safety can only come through personal responsibility.

No matter how we disagree on social issues and politics I think everyone can agree that we all deserve to live in peace.

I'm not perfect and metaphorically I want to keep clean up the dogie poop in my yard so it doesn't stink up the neighborhood, but that does no good if you allow your dog to come and use my yard. I can live next to anyone as long as your not blaring music at 2:30 in the morning. Whether muslim, christian, black, Michigan fans as long as you don't jack my shit up! Thats all I ask.

We will rise and fall together no matter if you like it or not.

Here is my answers to some "shout outs" posted above.
First, it's misleading because it is only based on reported crime. As I've found out first hand, calling in a crime and actually getting a report done about it is two different things.
Second, I never said in any way, shape or form that my "battle cry" is that Toledo is way too unsafe to save. As a matter of fact, I'm a firm believer that any city and/or neighborhood is worth saving, but it will take a huge unified effort by every citizen. Not just a few home owners.

This report, like many others, should be taken at face value. Do you feel safer today in Toledo than you did last year? If yes, then great. If no, then great. I personally do not feel that this report is "All that" about crime levels.
I'm so tired of politicians and public figures manipulating facts and figures to fit their agendas that I've been made very skeptical.
When the police chief says that we have too many cops or the scanner has dead silence or no one complains about response time when they call 911, I'll believe crime is on the way down.

As I was alluding to above...

I'm highly skeptical of any numbers and statistics the bureaucrats pump out these days. A good "Re-Read" of 1984 might be in order.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2011/0705/America-s-biggest-teacher-and-principal-cheating-scandal-unfolds-in-Atlanta

Good link, danneskjold! It was interesting to see the prominence of old-fashioned print newspapers in uncovering this story: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, C.S.Monitor & others.

Oh come on you two, you as TPS say... "Its all about the kids!"

And you wonder why some of us are not thrilled to hop on the union wagon. No want to be in bed with people who deal in things like that, nor do I want to pay more to support it.

But I'm the crazy one right...

I wonder how this Young Jeezy concert coming up will go down.

Any thoughts as to why this is happening? Can this report be trusted for those in the doom and gloom crowd?

Maybe the FBI ought to invest in new statistical measuring devices? The past 30 days in Toledo have been about on par with Sao Paulo. LOL

I asked a local citizen who has, let's be honest, 'hood friends', about what's going on and he mentioned about what seemed to be an apathy in the police force and a need for more presence in troubling areas.

Now recently they've taken a vast amount of guns off the streets, but does that really change the mentality of a thug?

Bull Shit! I say it's up.

No joke, in the midnight hour, while listening to the police scanner online, there was a call of 30 males fighting and two had guns. I also noticed several calls on dispatch of people with guns on their person and male and females fighting each other.