May Crime Stats: the Neighborhood has no Crown

The Fort Lauderdale Crime Analysis unit released its latest numbers on HOA crime this Monday (see attached).  Like many other neighborhoods throughout Fort Lauderale Imperial Point has seem a substantial rise in part 1 crime.   These types of crimes include robberies, residential burglaries, vehicle burglaries, business burglaries and vehicle theft.  Symbolically, Imperial Points' own entrance signage has been vandalized three times this year.

But what makes Imperial Point's rising crime rate particularly troubling is that the rate of increase, when compared to previous years, is far greater than other neighborhoods.

Presently, we have the dubious distinction of having the 5th highest historical crime rate increase of the 83 neighborhoods for which these statistics are available.

The chart below shows the number of incidents from January through May in each given calendar year.  The last two column show the rate of increase from 2002 and 2008 respectively.

 

HOA	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	%02-09	%08-09
Rock Island		0	1	0	30	46	80	65	200	-19.00%
Palm Aire Village (WEST)	1	4	7	6	6	4	10	14	1300.00%	40.00%
Palm-Aire Village (EAST)	2	7	2	7	1	5	5	19	850.00%	280.00%
Harbour Isles	1	11	2	0	4	0	1	5	400.00%	400.00%
Imperial Point	16	28	29	31	40	23	38	58	263.00%	53.00%
Lake Estates Improvement	1	3	2	0	0	2	2	3	200.00%	50.00%
Knoll Ridge	7	11	14	15	9	14	13	20	186.00%	54.00%
Flamingo Park	13	17	30	19	20	8	27	31	138.00%	15.00%
Tarpon River	24	28	38	32	31	25	23	56	133.00%	143.00%
Shady Banks	10	10	8	9	18	11	11	22	120.00%	100.00%

In terms of overall numbers of incidents Imperial Point ranks only 18th out of the 83 HOAs.  Slightly unnerving is that eight of the higher crime HOAs have decreases in their historical crime rates and the remainder have far lower increases than Imperial Point.

HOA	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	%02-09	%08-09
South Middle River	216	170	162	282	176	170	189	163	-25.00%	-14.00%
Lauderdale Manors	162	129	149	159	160	151	194	131	-19.00%	-32.00%
Melrose Park			44	58	61	54	71	129	n/c	82.00%
Victoria Park	129	102	108	151	122	83	123	116	-10.00%	-6.00%
Dorsey-Riverbend	102	94	98	128	119	103	124	102	0.00%	-18.00%
Riverside Park	77	70	50	95	73	68	52	90	17.00%	73.00%
Progresso Village	111	85	94	127	106	84	94	85	-23.00%	-10.00%
Central Beach Alliance	176	134	130	118	106	92	91	80	-55.00%	-12.00%
Durrs	65	63	60	71	102	70	104	77	18.00%	-26.00%
Melrose Manors	49	51	47	82	36	51	64	75	53.00%	17.00%
River Oaks	48	49	56	68	69	63	39	73	52.00%	87.00%
Sailboat Bend	82	65	74	56	83	62	76	72	-12.00%	-5.00%
Flagler Heights	84	47	68	88	53	49	74	66	-21.00%	-11.00%
Rock Island		0	1	0	30	46	80	65	n/c	-19.00%
Middle River Terrace	83	51	52	61	56	44	68	63	-24.00%	-7.00%
Coral Ridge Country Club Estate	46	45	44	57	44	41	66	61	33.00%	-8.00%
Imperial Point	16	28	29	31	40	23	38	58	263.00%	53.00%
Sunset	48	64	55	45	50	28	47	58	21.00%	23.00%
Tarpon River	24	28	38	32	31	25	23	56	133.00%	143.00%

I have asked Commission Roberts about these numbers and what they mean for our community.  He assured me that Imperial Point is part of a city wide trend, exacerbated by a shortage in patrol officers.  Roberts believes the department has a severe office retention problem and aims to curtail this during his tenure.  He confirmed that the principal drivers in our crime increase were residential and vehicular burglaries.

While its certainly true that Imperial Point is not alone, these numbers should encourage more citizen vigilance.  Ultimately Imperial Point remains a relatively safe neighborhood with only 58 incidents in an area that includes 2500 homes.  But if we are, in fact, being more frequently targeted I would like to know that the police department and city commission are at least aware of our concerns.

Attachment: HOA_YTD-3.pdf