Preparing for the morning news run today two headlines jumped off the page at me;
- Teen Gets Maximum for 2007 Shooting
- 15 Year Old Shot and Killed
The headlines are about teens in Rochester, New York. I find it somewhat ironic that the same day two stories involve violent crimes involving teens in the City of Rochester, the latest FBI Crime Statistics report for 2006-07 says the following about New York State;
- Crime in Monroe County, which is where Rochester is located, declined by 9.3%. That’s more than two times greater than the statewide drop of 3.7%
- New York has become the fourth safest state in the nation and the safest large state in the country
- New York has had a reduction in overall crime for 17 consecutive years.
The numbers may say crime is in decline, but with what I cover day in and day out, I’d like to find out exactly how the FBI are arriving at those numbers. Especially in Rochester where it seems violent crime is up. Not only does violent crime seem to be up, but it also seems like teens killing teens crime is up.
