I recently read that the City of Portland has had an extremely positive homicide rate this year with only 8 homicides up to August 1. 2 of these were homeowners shooting and killing burglars and will probably be counted as justified so 6 murders. That is a shockingly low number. With a little luck Portland could end the year with 10 murders which is the kind of murder rate you'd expect to see in a Canadian or Western European city of the same size. That is fantastic news.
Digging a little deeper I came across this article telling about
a new crime mapping tool. The tool sounds like a good one but I read this line here I see that crime in Portland has dropped dramatically the past 20 years.
Quote:
Portland State Professor Kris Henning said many residents don’t realize that crime has declined considerably over the past 20 years. Henning said they devour so much crime news they think the city is more dangerous than it is.
“Of the 13 crimes we looked at, the only one that increased significantly was bike theft,” Baleilevuka said.
Overall, gun-related crimes in Portland have dropped 84%. Residential burglaries are down 61%, motor vehicle thefts dropped 70%, home robberies are down 76% and street robberies are down 70%.
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So I thought I'd start this thread to discuss crime developments and how urban planning policy and development might be effecting this massive improvement.
Some discussion points:
- Portland versus peer cities in the US
- Crime development in Portland suburbs, is crime being reduced or displaced?
- Crime in Portland compared to peer cities outside the US
- Policing in Portland
- gentrification and crime
- what can be done to improve the situation even more?
- how has decriminalization and then legalization of marijuana contributed to the decrease?
- Incarceration in Portland, Oregon and SW Washington
Threaded Mode