By: Sharon Aron Baron
It may be reassuring to residents in the City of Tamarac to get notices in the mail or hear BSO boast that crime is down by 18 percent, but if residents were to look at the big picture, how accurate is that statement?
One key aspect is safety. There are excellent indicators that the City is moving in the right direction. Numbers released by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement show that overall crime in Tamarac is down 18%.” – July/August/September 2014 Tam-A-Gram
To get the answers, one would have to look at the last reported year of 2013 and compare it to 2012. In 2012, Tamarac had the highest crime index that the city has ever seen. According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, in 2012, Tamarac had 611 burglaries. In 2013, that figure was 444, which is a decrease of 18 percent.
But has crime really decreased in Tamarac?
Not according to the data.
In 2006, with only 4 percent less residents, burglaries totaled 292 for the year. This means crime has increased 35 percent by measuring 2013 against 2006. Rape increased 15 percent, robberies 3 percent, and aggravated assault went up a whopping 70 percent. Overall, the total crime index is up 8 percent compared to seven years ago.
Don’t want to go back that far? By comparing the 2013 data with 2010, burglaries and robberies have actually increased 20 percent since then, however, larceny has decreased 10 percent.
Data Analyst Andrew Ladanowski who reviewed the statistics agrees. “Even accounting for population growth, burglaries are way up, compared to the numbers before 2010.”
Based on the information, he believes that crime levels are returning to previous years, however, aren’t as low as back before 2010.
So before lowering your guard and believing that crime is on the decrease, remember that the city is not out of the woods, and crime rates aren’t as low as they were before their peak in 2011-2012.
Always remember to report any crime, no matter how small, and make sure BSO issues a police report. This way we can get accurate crime statistics for 2014.
