Civic Engagement

Crime undermines the social fabric of a community and imposes significant economic costs on local residents, businesses, and government. Some members of a community draw closer or develop grassroots improvement opportunities as a result of crime while others tend to leave or are discouraged from locating in a community. The causes and sources of criminal activity are many and varied, but crime rates are typically closely correlated with some of the other indicators presented in this report such as poverty, income, education, and housing.

In 2015 our violent crime and property crime rates increased from the previous year and were considerably higher than our peers. The impact of this kind of ranking on quality of life, economic development, and community prosperity is immerse. The lowest violent crime rate among our peers was less than 40% of the rate in our MSA.