Myrtle Beach 14th most dangerous place in the U.S.?
Whenever a report comes out that says the Myrtle Beach metro area has the xth highest crime rate in the nation, local government has fits. We don't want to scare off the tourists with the idea that they will get robbed or murdered while here on vacation. Last year it was announced that we had the 7th highest crime rate in the U.S. This time we are the 14th:
Local business and law enforcement officials disputed a report Tuesday that lists the Myrtle Beach metropolitan statistical area as being the 14th most dangerous place in the nation.The report, released this week by CQ Press, uses annual crime statistics from the FBI to rank 356 metro areas nationwide. Among the crimes factored into the study are murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft.
CQ Press takes the total number of crimes and divides them by an area's population. The report gives the Myrtle Beach metro area, which includes all of Horry County, a crime score of 70.16 - the 14th worst score nationwide.
Local officials, however, said the report does not factor in the region's 14 million annual tourists and parttime residents. This area's ranking improves to 149, which is near the national average, when those people are included.
The chamber of commerce, police chiefs, and our solicitor Greg Hembree all attended a news conference today to set the record straight. Sumter was ranked 5th, Florence was ranked 6th, and Charleston was ranked 21st most dangerous areas in the nation, according to the report.
Comments
Wouldn't that be an equal protection doctrine issue as well?
Posted by: Mary | February 21, 2009 9:27 AM
The local officials are saying that the crime rates go down when the tourists are factored in? HELLO???
If the tourists are not factored in, then I am even more worried about the high crime stats because that to me means that the crime stats are based on the small number of people living there year round. I find that even more unnnerving as someone interested in living there year round.
Why not stop being so defensive and start devoting more energy and resources to cleaning up crime there altogether? There is no excuse for a small area like Myrtle Beach to stand out so much statisically in a country this big. It's disgraceful!
Posted by: LJ | February 27, 2010 1:16 PM
Crime rates can appear higher than you think if you have a lot of tourists (non-permanent residents) in your community, because the number of crimes (violent, property, or both) is divided by the permanent population, creating a crime rate per 1,000 residents. If you have a lot of visitors, these people can increase the number of crimes, but do not count in establishing the rate because they don't live there, thus increasing the crime rate score per 1,000 residents. Therefore it is always valuable to look at both the crime rate, and the actual reported or estimated number of crime incidences in the neighborhood or community.
Posted by: Shirleen | September 2, 2010 9:08 PM