‘Safe City’: Regional edition
A map charting homicides in the city of St. Louis since 2005 recently was posted on this site, and when you look at the map a host of possibilities come to mind:
St. Louis is a good starting point to consider the incidence of crime — mainly because the data is so accessible. Indeed, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department maintains its own Web page called “Safe City” in which interested members of the public can make custom maps not just of homicides, but all reported incidence of crime by neighborhood, by zip code or within various distances of specific addresses.
It’s a gutsy decision to put the data out there. But it is a good service to citizens to enable them to follow what’s going on in their neighborhood and to chart trends, good and bad, and to use the information to sit down with area police and discuss context and details — the stuff that gives data meaning.
It’s an example that the rest of the region would do well to emulate.
For example, a recent news report indicated that, while violent crime was down 11 percent in the city of St. Louis in 2007 and property crimes were down 17 percent, much of the region saw increases during that period:
— St. Louis County saw a 3 percent gain in reports of violent crimes and a 6 percent gain in property crimes.
— St. Charles County saw a 4 percent increase in violent crimes and an increase of less than 1 percent in property crimes.
— Jefferson County saw drops in reports of violent crimes and property crimes.
— Franklin County saw large increases in both violent crimes and property crimes.
Suburban residents, no less than city residents, have an interest in understanding crime trends in their local communities — and they should insist that their leaders work together to provide it online, 24/7, through a useful mapping program.
St. Louis County, for example, reported nearly 3,500 violent crimes (a little less than half the city total) and 33,532 property crimes (800 fewer than the city). County residents, like their city neighbors, should be interested in where these crimes occurred and when and whether the incidence of crime in local areas is growing or diminishing.
With that kind of tool they could help transform ‘SafeCity’ into ‘SafeRegion.’
Eddie Roth writes about education, social justice, public safety, transportation, legal affairs and historic preservation. He joined the Post-Dispatch editorial page in 2008 after six years as an editorial writer with the Dayton Daily News. But he is not new to St. Louis. Eddie grew up in Webster Groves and south St. Louis County. He's a lawyer who for many years practiced with a downtown firm, and was active in civic affairs, including serving a term on the St. Louis Police Board. He and his wife, Jeanne, and their three daughters, Emily, Julia and Alice, live in the Shaw Neighborhood.
When it comes to community organizing, he endorses Quentin Crisp's advice: Rather than keeping up with the Joneses, it's better to pull them down to your level. 
St. Louis county will never be so open about crime. If they were, Charlie Doolie would have to fess up to the total failure of his administration to put the brakes on the horrific crime in the unincorporated areas of north county for which he is responsible. Anybody who hasn’t spend one evening with a police scanner should make it a point to do so … it’s really an education.