Report: Phoenix following national trend with falling murder, crime rates
Jan 4, 2019, 4:52 AM | Updated: 3:46 pm
(Pixabay Photo)
(Pixabay Photo)
PHOENIX — Phoenix is following national trends with dropping murder and overall crime rates.
The city had 17.8 percent fewer murders, and 6.4 percent less crime, last year compared to 2017, according to an NYU School of Law report.
“Improving economic conditions were a lot of the reason, and more police officers are on the street,” Ames Grawert, senior counsel at the univeristy’s Brennan Center for Justice and co-author of the report, said.
The report found the nation’s 30 biggest cities had the lowest crime rates in 30 years.
Grawert said the Phoenix Police Department shares more data more readily.
“There are a lot of cities where you have to file an open records request, and you hope they get back to you, and that doesn’t always happen,” Grawert said.
Grawert also gathered data from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report. He wants it to produce evidence-based solutions to stopping crime.
A Phoenix Police spokesman declined to comment because the department hadn’t finalized its own 2018 data and couldn’t check the accuracy of the report.
