Crime in Birmingham
Crime in Birmingham is a primary issue. The city of Birmingham routinely ranks very high on published rankings of violent crime rates. The 14th Edition of the Congressional Quarterly Press' City Crime Rankings identified Birmingham as the sixth most dangerous city in the United States (while the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area came in at 37th among metro areas).
Statistics
The Birmingham Police Department provides semi-annual statistics for various categories of reported crime by precinct. These statistics are forwarded, as "Uniform Crime Reports" to the Federal Bureau of Investigation which compiles an annual publication entitled Crime in the United States. Despite the FBI's disclaimers that UCR data is unsuited to making comparisons between cities, its publications are used by private publishers to generate crime rankings.
2007
Overall, occurrences of major crimes increased 3% from 2006 to 2007. Robberies increased the most, at 13% (1,609 compared to 1,429) while rape, burglary, theft and auto theft rose slightly. Homicides, in contrast, fell 15% from 2006 (93 in 2007 vs 109 in 2006) and aggravated assaults decreased slightly. When reported to the FBI, only those homicides determined by police and prosecutors to be murder or non-negligent manslaughter are counted. Using that definition, Birmingham experienced 86 murders in 2007 compared to 104 in 2006 (a 17% drop).
Crimes reported to the FBI for 2007 included the following (with % change since 2006) [1]:
- Violent crimes: 3,320 (+4.6%)
- Murders: 86 (-17.3%)
- Forcible rapes: 229 (+4.1%)
- Robberies: 1,609 (+12.6%)
- Aggravated assaults: 1,396 (-1.8%)
- Property crimes: 19,638 (+3.3%)
- Burglaries: 4,864 (+1.1%)
- Larcenies/thefts: 12,528 (+3.4%)
- Auto thefts: 2,246 (+7.9%)
- Arsons: 221 (-3.1%)
During 2007 the Birmingham Police vice and narcotics unit carried out 317 warranted searches and 722 vice operations, leading to 955 felony arrests and 2,052 misdemeanor arrests.
For the period from January to June 2007 the following crimes were reported, with percentages compared to the same period in 2006:
- City of Birmingham (January through September 2007)
- Homicides (62)
- Rapes (143)
- Robberies (884)
- Aggravated assaults (802)
- Burglaries (2,624)
- Thefts (7,217)
- Auto thefts (1,269)
- South Precinct
- "major crimes" January - October (4,319)
- Violent crimes (2,942) down 5%
- Homicides (9)
- Rapes (31)
- Robberies (196)
- Aggravated assaults (108)
- Burglaries (476)
- Thefts (1,812)
- Auto thefts (310) up 10%
- West Precinct
- "major crimes" January - October (5,378)
- Violent crimes, down 3%
- East Precinct
- "major crimes" January - October (5,424)
- Violent crimes, up 16%
- North Precinct
- "major crimes" January - October (3,386)
- Violent crimes, up 8%
2006
- Homicides (109)
- Rapes (220)
- Robberies (1,429)
- Aggravated assaults (1,422)
- Burglaries (4,813)
- Thefts (7,833)
- Auto thefts (2,081)
Crimes reported to the FBI for 2006 included the following:
- Violent crimes: 3,175
- Murders: 104
- Forcible rapes: 220
- Robberies: 1,429
- Aggravated assaults: 1,422
- Property crimes: 19,007
- Burglaries: 4,813
- Larcenies/thefts: 12,113
- Auto thefts: 2,081
- Arsons: 228
2005
- Homicides (105)
- Rapes (241)
- Robberies (1,429)
- Aggravated assaults (1,675)
- Burglaries (4,933)
- Thefts (11,962)
- Auto thefts (2,028)
2004
- Homicides (59)
- Rapes (240)
- Robberies (1,369)
- Aggravated assaults (1,593)
- Burglaries (5,156)
- Thefts (11,970)
- Auto thefts (2,351)
1994
- Homicides (135)
- Rapes
- Robberies (nearly 2,000)
- Aggravated assaults (4,237)
- Burglaries
- Thefts (over 16,000)
- Auto thefts (nearly 4,000)
See also
References
- Pelfrey, David (October 4, 2007) "Crime by the numbers." Black & White
- Robinson, Carol (October 10, 2007) "Crime down 5% in South Precinct." Birmingham News
- Norris, Toraine and Jeremy Gray (January 13, 2007) "Crime fight grows in Southside hot spots." Birmingham News
- Robinson, Carole (February 20, 2008) "Crime in Birmingham up in 2007." Birmingham News
External links
- Victims of Birmingham Crime on MySpace.com
- CQ Press 2007 Safest City Award