For those of you who may not have been following the news, it might be a surprise to know that according to the latest FBI crime statistics, crime rates in America continue to fall (see chart). According to the FBI’s Crime in the United States report, overall the estimated volume of violent crimes in 2010 dropped 6 percent compared to the 2009 figure, the fourth consecutive year it has declined. For the eighth consecutive year, the volume of property crimes went down as well—2.7 percent. According to the FBI, the report was compiled from data submitted to it by more than 18,000 city, county, university and college, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies from around the nation. Best of all, violent crime offenses were down across the board—the largest decrease was robbery, down 10.0 percent. Property crime offenses went down as well—the largest decline, 7.4 percent, was for motor vehicle thefts.

Crime Rates Down Across the Board

But who needs the FBI, when our nation’s hard-hitting investigative reporters have nothing bigger to report than stories like these:

Watsonville: Security Guard Arrested After Reportedly Forcing Off Woman’s Pants, Underwear
San Jose Mercury News (12/24/11) Kelly, Cathy

A security guard at a shopping center in Watsonville, Calif., has been arrested on suspicion of sexual battery after he allegedly pulled down a woman’s pants in the shopping center’s parking lot. Authorities say that Jose Moreno, who works for Santa Cruz Peninsula Security, approached a woman who was sleeping in her car in the shopping center’s parking lot early in the morning of Dec. 23 and asked for her identification. Moreno also asked the woman, who was sleeping in her car because she was too tired to drive home, whether she had any drugs or weapons. Moreno then said that the woman was hiding things in her pants and allegedly forcibly pulled down her pants and underwear. Web Link

Police: East Erie Gas Station Where Monday Shooting Occurred Robbed Early This Morning
Erie Times-News (PA) (12/28/11) Hahn, Tim

Police in Erie, Pa., are investigating whether a robbery that occurred at a gas station in the city early in the morning on Dec. 28 is connected to a series of other robberies that occurred nearby earlier this year. The latest robbery took place at a Country Fair store at roughly 12:05 a.m. on Dec. 28, when two men armed with handguns forced a security guard who was standing outside the store back into the building and made him get on the ground. Three other men armed with guns then ran into the store and rounded up the employees, forcing them to open the cash registers and give them money, as well as cigarettes and other types of tobacco products. All of the robbers eventually got away. Police say that the robbery may be connected to six robberies that took place at a nearby Kwik Fill station earlier this year. Three people have been charged with robbing the Kwik Fill in August, though the rest of those robberies are still being investigated. The Kwik Fill has since been closed.  Web Link

Seems obvious to me that when stories like these make national news, no one needs the benefit of crime statistics to know that crime in America indeed, is on the decline.

Be safe out there .