Report: St. Louis reclaims No. 2 ranking for crime
ST. LOUIS - A yearly report ranking U.S cities by crime has again identified St. Louis as the second worst behind Camden, NJ.
Last year, St. Louis was fourth.
The controversial report released this weekend by publishing firm CQ Press ranks 393 cities (with at least 75,000 people) based on 2008 crime statistics published by the FBI.
Rounding out the top five worst cities for crime are familiar names on CQ’s list: Oakland, Calif., Detroit, Mich., and Flint, Mich.
In 2006, St. Louis was named worst in the nation for crime (just ahead of Detroit) on the day of the Cardinals World Series parade after the team defeated the Detroit Tigers.
In 2007, St. Louis grabbed the No. 2 spot.
New Orleans, which inherited a public relations nightmare last year when it gained the title of having the most crime, dropped to sixth in this year’s ranking.
The city with the best ranking this year is Colonie, NY, a suburb of Albany.
This year’s list put O’Fallon, Mo., which had enjoyed a third-best crime ranking in last year’s ranking, at 14th.
The publishing firm also ranked the largest 332 metropolitan areas. St. Louis came in at 103. (Pine Bluff, Ark., had the highest ranking, and metropolitan State College, Pa., had the lowest.) Last year was the first time the publisher eliminated the “most dangerous” label, which critics have called inflammatory and wrong.
The publisher says the yearly ranking raises awareness about crime and has called it the comprehensive collection of crime data available. But criminologists and city officials, especially those whose cities fare poorly, routinely knock the annual ranking as meaningless and damaging to cities’ reputations.
Kara Bowlin, a spokeswoman for Mayor Francis Slay, called the ranking “stupid” and “totally bogus” aimed at selling books, a ranking that hurts tourism and other businesses here.
“It gives people a scary image of St. Louis,” Bowlin said. “St. Louis has a dense population in such a small amount of space that it doesn’t provide a good picture of what actually happens.”
She pointed to dropping crime rates in St. Louis over the past three years. Crime was down about 9 percent in St. Louis city in 2008 from the previous year. Check out STLtoday’s homicide map by clicking here.
CQ’s rankings are based on FBI crime statistics for murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary and auto theft.
To see the full list and other data, click this sentence.
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Suggest again the Saint Louis Cardinals voluntarily again turn over
the sales tax on tickets to the City of St. Louis for the hiring and training of more police officers.
Suggest again that the Fox Theater, for the first time ever, pay city
sales tax for the hiring and training of more police officers.
Suggest again that Scottrade Center and all other places that offer professional for admission entertainment turn over the tax money
to the City to hire and train more police officers.
That means when you go to a concert in the St. Louis Cathedral,
and pay admission-3% goes to the City to hire and train more police
officers.
Does Chaefitz Arena pay ticket tax..or are they exempt because they
are on the campus of a private University? Doesnt matter..they pay
the tax.
Suggest that professional entertainment even protected as not-for-profit
render 3% of admissions to the City to hire and train more police officers.
And if none of them will not, or they cough and sputter and
complain the City sends out the Sheriff and his deputies to collect the money.
I believe the Post-Dispatch has more of a responsility to ST. Louis
than just publishing statistics.
The hell with being number 2. If we work hard I am sure we can be number 1.
I’m tired of people acting like crime is only a problem in St. Louis. Forbes recent Top 15 most dangerous metropolitan areas didn’t even have St. Louis on it. You weren’t even in the top 100! And your city’s crime stats are dramatically inflated because of your incredibly tiny city limits (less than 62 sq. miles) and the inclusion of some of the region’s worst neighborhoods (north city) in those limits. Every major city has their own version of north Saint Louis. The difference is almost every other city is represented by a much bigger swatch of their region. If your city limits were like Houston (579 sq miles), L.A. (469), Kansas City (313), Jacksonville (757) or many others you would have one of the safer “cities” in the country. This region needs to understand this. North city aside, you have a nice and safe city here that has enormous potential. You are getting there, just stop thinking your crime is worse than other areas. I’ve lived in 9 different cities in the last 17 years so trust me on that. On the other hand, crime is out of hand in America and seems to be only getting worse. To reunite your city and county again would also get you off these horrible lists. Especially because they are not true, it is very damaging to the region’s reputation.
My understanding is St. Louis county population is included in this statistic, if you eliminate the county population wonder where it would land?
Golterman, business’s don’t gets to choose how the taxes they pay is spent.
Maxim Magazine did a news report several years back about Camden, NJ and how crime ridden the city was, maybe they will write a report about us.
I wonder if we would rank 1 if we included East St. Louis to the mix?
stl transplant-
Of course we weren’t on the Forbes list for most dangerous metropolitan areas. The St. Louis MSA contains Jefferson County, St. Charles County, Warren County, Jersey County, IL etc. It is much bigger than just the City and County.
I am not saying that those other places are crime free, but it definitely waters down the crime statistics coming out of the City.
More police is not the answer. Transplant 100% of St. Louis population to west or south county and bring those people to St. Louis. WaLa crime problem solved. The county would suffer though. Its not the geography or conditions it’s the people that live there.
I’m anxious for Chief Isoms’ next survey of the citizens. How do you explain the rise in crime, Chief? This is going to look bad on your resume’. Maybe you could crawl out from under Slays’ desk long enough to ask your police force to do some police work. You remember police work, don’t you chief? You may have watched some crime shows on TV, you sure don’t act like you ever did any police work. Why on earth did they appoint this empty suit to the job? Talk about do-nothing, know-nothing. Good thing you’re Black chief, otherwise you would accountable for this miserable performance. This guy is a total waste of space, my paper weight knows more about police work than this clown.
While I respect those who believe that Chief Isom’s staff should be increased and better trained, I really don’t think that will solve the problem. The problem lies in your District Attorneys office. The low pleas and low sentencing (if any) is what is causing these crimes to continue. These criminals and their lawyers know the system better than anyone and are released back on the streets in little to no time. Until they shake things up at that level, you will see no change. The police can lock up everyone in the city, but unless they are prosecuted and punished, its a waste.