jump to navigation

Portland Reports Low Crime Rate August 9, 2008

Posted by FairSentencing in : Current News , trackback

Crimes in Portland are at the lowest rate since the city started keeping records in the 1970’s, police said Wednesday.

KGW report on crime rate “There’s a significant drop,” said Sgt. Brian Schmautz with the Portland Police Bureau.

Shoplifting was the only crime to increase, according to the recently released report, growing by 3%. All other crimes are down 14%, the numbers showed.

The murder rate was down 13% compared to this time last year. There have been 13 murders this year in Portland.

Rape and robbery were also down 17%, the report said. Auto theft had the largest drop, at 36%.

“The last thing we want to say is that it’s solely because of cops because there are a number of factors always involved in criminal activity,” said Sgt. Schmautz.

“For the city of Portland, we would just like to assure people there is positive news in crime. It doesn’t always have to be the crime of the day or the fifteen crimes of the day and in fact Portland is enjoying a relative quiet period,” he added.

The police department also breaks down the statistics according to the different sections of town. Police were being cautiously optimistic, they said.

“We haven’t had a murder in thirty days,” said Sgt. Brian Schmautz. He added, “But the reality is, living in an urban area, with hundreds of thousands of people someone will unfortunately end up being a victim.”

Share

Comments»

no comments yet - be the first?