I responded to your recent poll, “Do you feel safe living in Aransas County?” I really didn’t consider our county being more/less safe than any other but, following a recent ‘incident’ in the area, I started hearing charges on public media stating that Rockport tries to “play down” crime in order to avoid alarming our tourist industry, I decided to look up some data on crime here. I did a bit of research and ran across the following on neighborhoodscout.com. (I ran the report on Rockport because the data was broken down by city, not county).
“With a crime rate of 44 per one thousand residents, Rockport has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes - from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One’s chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 23. Within Texas, more than 97% of the communities have a lower crime rate than Rockport.
Separately, it is always interesting and important to compare a city’s crime rate with those of similarly sized communities - a fair comparison, as larger cities tend to have more crime. NeighborhoodScout has done just that. With a population of 10,436, Rockport has a combined rate of violent and property crime that is very high compared to other places of similar population size. Regardless of whether Rockport does well or poorly compared to all other cities and towns in the US of all sizes, compared to places with a similar population, it fares badly. Few other communities of this size have a crime rate as high as Rockport.
Now let us turn to take a look at how Rockport does for violent crimes specifically, and then how it does for property crimes. This is important because the overall crime rate can be further illuminated by understanding if violent crime or property crimes (or both) are the major contributors to the general rate of crime in Rockport.
From our analysis, we discovered that violent crime in Rockport occurs at a rate higher than in most communities of all population sizes in America. The chance that a person will become a victim of a violent crime in Rockport; such as armed robbery, aggravated assault, rape or murder; is 1 in 282. This equates to a rate of four per 1,000 inhabitants.
In addition, NeighborhoodScout found that a lot of the crime that takes place in Rockport is property crime. Property crimes that are tracked for this analysis are burglary, larceny over $50, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In Rockport, your chance of becoming a victim of a property crime is one in 25, which is a rate of 40 per 1,000 population.” (BTW, I did look at other reports at TX DPS online, insideprison.com, among others and the data was, for the most part old or incomplete).
If these numbers are accurate, I’m really sad. When I first moved into our home here, we never locked the doors. Now, you don’t dare leave your home without locking everything down. And, if you’ll be gone long, asking your neighbors to keep an eye on your place.
I would be interested to hear others’ comments regarding this report on our town. If these reports are true, what can the community do to improve our crime statistics?
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.