124-City Survey Finds Economic Woes Driving Crime
Laura DeKoven Waxman
August 11, 2008
124-City Survey Finds Economic Woes Driving Crime
By Laura DeKoven Waxman
In preparation for the August 5-6, ’08 Mayors’ Action Forum on Crime in Philadelphia, The U.S. Conference of Mayors conducted a brief survey of mayors and police chiefs to identify key issues relating to crime in cities today. The cities range in size from Los Angeles with a population of nearly 3.7 million, to Morristown (TN) with a population of 25,800. Responses were received from 124 cities in 36 states and Puerto Rico.
Miami Police Chief John Timoney briefed the mayors and police chiefs on the survey’s findings. Among them:
More than four in ten of the survey cities (42 percent) report that they are seeing increased crime as a result of current economic conditions.
Nearly three in ten cities (29 percent) report an increase in crime resulting from the mortgage foreclosure crisis and the increase in the number of vacant and abandoned properties.
Nearly half (46 percent) of the survey cities report that the increase in the cost of gasoline has had a significant or very significant effect on their police department. Another 46 percent say it has had a moderate effect.
As a group, the survey cities report that they currently have a total of 62,157 police officers. This is an average of 8.6 percent fewer officers than they had at their peak. The cities also report that to achieve the realistic, ideal number of officers their departments should have would require a 13.75 percent average increase. Using this percentage to project the magnitude of this increase nationwide, an additional 92,316 officers are needed in local police, sheriffs’ and special jurisdiction departments.
One-half of the survey cities report that they have experienced an increase in violence among young people over the last year. This violence has manifested itself most frequently in gang violence, street crime, school violence, and gun violence.
Drug-related crimes were cited most frequently by the survey cities as their single biggest crime problem. This was followed by larcenies and thefts, property crimes, and automobile thefts or automobile-related crimes.
The survey is available on line at http://www.usmayors.org/maf/CrimeReport_0808.pdf.
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