Raleigh Crime Rate Down Slightly, Latest Report Shows

Raleigh, N.C. — Violent crime increased last year, but the city's overall crime rate declined, according to a report released Friday by the Raleigh Police Department.

The collective number of homicides, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, larcenies and motor vehicle thefts -- which make up what the department calls the Part 1 Crime Index -- in 2006 increased by 2.4 percent, which was less than Raleigh's 3.3 percent population growth -- factors that combined to produce the improved crime rate.

"The actual raw numbers went up a little bit, but not near as much as the population percentage went up," said Raleigh interm police chief Kent Sholar.

Violent crimes, overall, increased 8.6 percent from 2005 with a more significant increase in robberies and aggravated assaults. The number of homicides, however, was down 10 percent.

Property crimes -- comprised of burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft -- made up about 85 percent of the city's Part 1 crimes, with the largest increase (2.7 percent) in larceny.

However, the city's crime rate -- the national standard used to compare the occurrence of crimes between jurisdictions of varying sizes -- stands at 4,207, less than 1 percent lower than 2005's crime rate of 4,244.

Sholar said the police department is pleased with the numbers overall, but he said he is the most concerned about the rise in robberies.

“As we get more people, we're going to have raw numbers showing more crime,” Sholar said. “Our battle is to keep the crime rate from increasing.”

23 Comments

WRAL.com welcomes your comments on this story. All comments are moderated prior to publication based on our posting guidelines. Please review them prior to posting and if your message is not approved.

VIEW ALL 23 COMMENTS

This story is closed for comments. Comments on WRAL.com news stories are accepted and moderated between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Latest Comments

Where are all these doughnut shops My Screen Name? I don't see one on Fayetteville St.

Get a clue
March 19, 2007 11:40 a.m.

We need a subway system here.

smoothtip99
March 19, 2007 9:43 a.m.

If Durham used the same tactics as Raleigh did their crime rate would drop too.......put a donut shop on each corner in Durham too........it works

My Screen name
March 19, 2007 7:51 a.m.

As they say in Accounting circles, figures don't lie, but liars do figure.

DontLikeTheSocialistObama
March 18, 2007 9:28 p.m.

Lesson 1 on how to lie with statistics:

Population growth is determined from January 1 to December 31. Crime is spread out over the entire year. If people move in at a constant rate (which they don't, but bear with me), the population growth is 3.8%, AND the crime rate was constant (which it may not be), then crime should increase at a rate of 1.9% (1/2 of 3.8%, since half the new people arrived by July 1 and half arrived after July 1). In this case 2.4% is above the rate due to population growth. Seems to me that the crime rate actually increased! Of course, my assumptions are naive. I'm sure the City could figure it out more precisely, but I doubt they will -- it is much more to their benefit to pretend that crime has decreased.

mvnull
March 18, 2007 9:16 p.m.