A recent study published by alarms.org of the top 100 most dangerous cities in the world ranked Blytheville as 60.
The study states that the data was compiled from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting database and crime reports for the years 2010 through 2014. However, according to ucr.fbi.gov/ucr-statistics-their-proper-use "UCR data are sometimes used to compile rankings of individual jurisdictions and institutions of higher learning. These incomplete analyses have often created misleading perceptions which adversely affect geographic entities and their residents."
Chief of Police Ross Thompson addressed the recent study and its methodology, saying that one thing that studies like the one put on by alarms.org will never show is the relationship between crime and the demographics and activities of victims and suspects.
"One of the things you would want to look at is say, Blytheville has 10 murders in one year and you look at the demographics, the locations, the activates that surround that…in Blytheville (crime) may be isolated to certain areas or identifiable groups…you can see that and you can focus on that. You may take those same statistics, and you do the per capita thing, but if you look at what I just said and you look in Chicago it may be more of a random type offender and victim versus what you look at here. And the random offender/victim is the one that puts Joe Citizen at risk. If you stay out of gangs and stay out of drug it's less likely that (crime) will happen," Thompson said.
According to Thompson the "random victim" crimes are much lower than the "drug and gang-related" crimes. He reiterated that though it does happen, it is often by known offenders that can usually be identified easily.
Thompson was also critical of the study being based on data from 2010 to 2014. He stated that more recent data is readily available and whether things have gotten better or worse in those four to eight years, the issue is the data is old.
"There is no doubt that Blytheville has a high crime rate. Nobody goes around here and says, ‘Oh, Blytheville is Utopia and we don't have crime, everybody is in denial.' It's like, ‘No we are actually trying to take some efforts and trying to rebuild the force and rebuild the city and address some of these things.' Sometimes we have success and sometimes it is like you take two steps forward and one step back but guess what, if that's the case you still took one step forward," Thompson said.
Under Thompson's leadership, the BPD is attempting to make Blytheville the safest place it can possibly be and it is seeing support from its community and city government like never before. With the passing of the Public Safety Tax, the BPD was able to raise its pay to make it more competitive to cities with similar demographics to Blytheville across the state. They have also been able to purchase new leading-edge equipment for officers to use in the field and seen a rise in community assistance through programs like the Chamber of Commerce's Blytheville Crime Stoppers.
"Here is my question to you, that article was done by alarms.org so let's say they make a list of the safest cities in the country, would they? I don't know because they want to sell you alarms…if the study shows that you're in the safest city are they going to say, ‘Oh, you are in the safest city, you don't need alarms'? I wouldn't," Thompson said.
He added that the list is almost like deformation of character to Blytheville. He stated that if the list had been published and Blytheville had been ranked as the city with the 60th highest crime rate per capita in the country then it would be accurate to what those number reflect; however, the publishers took it a step further and labeled Blytheville as the 60th most dangerous city in the nation, which is, according to Thompson, not as easily quantifiable.
gwilliams@blythevillecourier.com