There are several up-ticks in two benchmarks, in two of the four zones Roanoke police divide the city into, but since 2005 overall crime rates in Roanoke are down about fifty percent. “The state police crime numbers reflect [that] downward trend,” said Deputy Chief Tim Jones, noting it is now the lowest crime rate on average since 2005.
That’s small comfort perhaps to those disturbed by the recent greenway shooting, which appeared to be a random act at press time, or to the victim of any crime. Jones said the police department watches the stats “very closely” in deciding where extra patrols or attention might be needed. “We’ll stand by the downward trend,” adds Jones.
The crime rate in Roanoke City has been a bone of contention at several City Council candidate forums, where an online poll has been mentioned – one by the real estate brokerage firm Movoto that shows Roanoke as the 37th “safest” city in Virginia – dead last.
Movoto crunched numbers supplied by the city police department to the state police and the FBI, giving more weight to violent crime than to property crime. The FBI has warned against using such crime data for rankings; one bulletin said the results are influenced by many factors and rankings can often be too “simplistic.”
Republican candidates Roger Malouf, Jim Garrett and Hank Benson have been the most vocal in highlighting that 37th place ranking, while incumbents Ray Ferris, Bill Bestpitch and Dave Trinkle have led the charge in highlighting the downward crime rate numbers.
All ten candidates have praised the work of Roanoke police at several candidate forums; independent Tuan Reynolds has been the most vocal in tying crime to what he called a high rate of poverty in Roanoke.
Jones said the overall downward trend “is quite a good set of circumstances to find yourself in.” From 2012 t0 2013, the rate of violent crimes in one sector and the property crime rate in another did rise less than two percent – other than that the numbers are trending downward. Jones noted that crime analysts in the police department crunch the numbers “daily and weekly,” looking for trends and trouble spots.
Property crime is something residents and businesses can fight – Jones said the department tries to educate residents: don’t leave items in an unlocked car, lock up your home or tool sheds as well, so that something like a laptop doesn’t become “easy prey for someone that wants to steal it.”
Violent crimes are “events of circumstance” in Roanoke according to Jones, occurring at what he termed the nexus of “street-related robberies and drug activity.” People carrying cash are often targeted by those that need money to buy drugs. Sometimes they become a crime statistic in Roanoke. “It’s all about awareness, education and protecting one another,” said Jones. That doesn’t let the city off the hook as far as fighting crime, but it’s one way Jones said residents can join the fight.
“Anytime you’re working with statistics it’s very easy to make them reflect the position you’re speaking from,” said Jones, “but we try to take the middle of the road approach.” He cautions about reading the Movoto 37th place ranking in a particular way: “it’s so unfortunate that they base that strictly on particular segments of the crime reports.”
Jones pointed to a recent weekend where more than 10,000 visited the valley for a number of events. “Our issues over that weekend …were with our own citizens, who chose to behave badly all too often. We’ve got to do a much better job…of instilling in our [residents] that there are consequences for making bad decisions.”
That type of activity places the city at times “in a not-too-favorable light,” said Jones – not too mention 37th place on the safest city in Virginia rankings. So the City Council race has provoked some conversation, as do incidents like the greenway shooting near the Ramada Inn on Franklin Road: How safe is Roanoke City?
By Gene Marrano
