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The wonderful thing about broad statistics, a decline in one area can mask increases in others. Here in Santa Cruz (city, not sure about county) lots of crime

The wonderful thing about broad statistics, a decline in one area can mask increases in others. Here in Santa Cruz (city, not sure about county) lots of crime categories are up across the board. It is pretty darn noticeable.

mikeleeorg 12y ago
I don't know how accurate this data is, but I looked around and it seems to match the numbers that other sites listed: http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Santa-Cruz-California.html http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Santa-Cruz-California.h... It doesn't show any major trends upwards (or downwards) in the crime rate for Santa Cruz. Are there other sources of data on which you are referring? I ask because it looks like you are being downvoted (I didn't downvote you), perhaps because your comment didn't come across like one with data behind it.
- jmspring 12y ago
  The site shows particular numbers, but having lived here 24+ years, the statistics don't reflect reality. The problem is, "petty theft" doesn't get written up, in most cases if it is under $1000 in loss, the police will not take a report. Bike theft? Well, good luck with that - if Paul Graham was to witness you jacking a $5k bike off of my car and he called the cops and the bike wasn't registered, the cops will not do anything. Thief tools on you and you are "checked out" by the cops, unless there is an outstanding warrant, you are let go. There is a big local issue with actually "punishing" any petty crime. I saw the stats, but the reality is way out of whack with them mainly due to cops/courts/DAs not really enforcing things. Crimes related to drug use -- heroin, meth, bath salts -- generally don't even get into the system. Take them to jail, they are out in a couple of hours max. If you want specifics, I am happy to provide.
throwaway344 12y ago
Is there a source that you have on that? I typically use city-data for that sort of thing, and their page doesn't tell the same story. http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Santa-Cruz-California.html http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Santa-Cruz-California.h... While theft and arson are up, rape and assault are down.
thrownaway2424 12y ago
Even if crime is up in SC, it's almost guaranteed that some locale will have rising crime even in a nation of falling crime. It's just a stochastic process where the system boundaries used for reporting crime are more or less randomly determined. I'd be more surprised to hear that there was no such city in America with rising crime.

mikeleeorg 12y ago

I don't know how accurate this data is, but I looked around and it seems to match the numbers that other sites listed: http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Santa-Cruz-California.html http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Santa-Cruz-California.h... It doesn't show any major trends upwards (or downwards) in the crime rate for Santa Cruz. Are there other sources of data on which you are referring? I ask because it looks like you are being downvoted (I didn't downvote you), perhaps because your comment didn't come across like one with data behind it.

jmspring 12y ago
The site shows particular numbers, but having lived here 24+ years, the statistics don't reflect reality. The problem is, "petty theft" doesn't get written up, in most cases if it is under $1000 in loss, the police will not take a report. Bike theft? Well, good luck with that - if Paul Graham was to witness you jacking a $5k bike off of my car and he called the cops and the bike wasn't registered, the cops will not do anything. Thief tools on you and you are "checked out" by the cops, unless there is an outstanding warrant, you are let go. There is a big local issue with actually "punishing" any petty crime. I saw the stats, but the reality is way out of whack with them mainly due to cops/courts/DAs not really enforcing things. Crimes related to drug use -- heroin, meth, bath salts -- generally don't even get into the system. Take them to jail, they are out in a couple of hours max. If you want specifics, I am happy to provide.

throwaway344 12y ago

Is there a source that you have on that? I typically use city-data for that sort of thing, and their page doesn't tell the same story. http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Santa-Cruz-California.html http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Santa-Cruz-California.h... While theft and arson are up, rape and assault are down.

thrownaway2424 12y ago

Even if crime is up in SC, it's almost guaranteed that some locale will have rising crime even in a nation of falling crime. It's just a stochastic process where the system boundaries used for reporting crime are more or less randomly determined. I'd be more surprised to hear that there was no such city in America with rising crime.