Mayor’s rebuttal of Atlanta crime-rankings misleading and incomplete

In 2008, Atlanta indeed had more crime per person than all-but-one U.S. city with more than 500,000 people.

Rebutting a June 5 story by Real Clear Politics naming Atlanta the country’s second least-safe large city, Mayor Shirley Franklin’s office today correctly noted Real Clear Politics jumbled its numbers.

From the Mayor’s office (emphasis mine):

Real Clear Politics claims that the City of Atlanta’s crime rate is over 16%.  According to the actual FBI data, the crime rate in Atlanta is only 8.7%.  (The FBI shows total crimes in 2008 of 46,381 and a population of 533,016.  This translates to a crime rate of 8.7%.)

What the Mayor’s defiant press release neglects to mention, however, is that Real Clear Politics’ rankings are indeed correct.

The “only 8.7%” crime rate Franklin’s office boasts of is, according the FBI, the second-highest crime rate of any American city with more than 500,000 people.

In 2008, Atlanta indeed had more crime per person than all-but-one U.S. city with more than 500,000 people.

The numbers below were calculated by adding the total number of violent crime and property crime incidents in 2008 (not including arson) divided by the population. All of the numbers can be found in an Excel spreadsheet on the FBI’s web site.








Memphis
0.0993%%%

Atlanta
0.0873%%%

San Antonio
0.0794%%%

Detroit
0.0779%%%

Indianapolis
0.0729%%%

Milwaukee
0.0729%%%

Columbus
0.0722%%%

Charlotte-Mecklenburg
0.0712%%%

Alburquerque
0.0694%%%

Oklahoma City
0.0687%%%

Dallas
0.0683%%%

Nashville
0.0677%%%

Jacksonville
0.0673%%%

Austin
0.0647%%%

Baltimore
0.0641%%%

Seattle
0.0606%%%

Houston
0.0605%%%

Portland
0.0591%%%

Phoenix
0.0587%%%

Philadelphia
0.0578%%%

Fort Worth
0.0569%%%

San Francisco
0.0539%%%

Louisville Metro
0.0536%%%

Las Vegas
0.0491%%%

Boston
0.0482%%%

Chicago
0.0463%%%

Denver
0.0382%%%

Honolulu
0.0379%%%

El Paso
0.0368%%%

San Diego
0.0365%%%

Los Angeles
0.0331%%%

San Jose
0.0274%%%

New York
0.0238%%%