New FBI Crime Statistics for Valley Cities
The FBI says violent crime nationwide is down for the fifth year in a row, and property crime is down for the ninth year in a row.
We looked back at crime statistics for the nine valley cities for the past five years.
What we found is that crime is down for most cities from 2007 levels -but not all- and property crimes are higher for almost every city from 2010.
Some people say crime in their neighborhood is going down.
"In my neighborhood it has been really good, surprisingly good, and nothing has happened in the last two or three years," said Roger, an Indio resident.
But others say, "I think it's going up," said Laura Alvarez, also an Indio resident.
Laura was even the victim of a property crime.
"In my neighborhood it is not really safe sometimes."
Here's a look at the valley-wide breakdown of violent crime numbers by city starting in 2007.
The FBI does warn against ranking cities.
And remember they are different sizes: Indio the largest, followed by Cathedral City and then Palm Desert.
Violent Crime 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Cathedral City 204 241 203 249 226
Coachella 302 213 255 193 276
Desert Hot Springs 276 315 326 374 334
Indian Wells 3 1 3 4 0
Indio 350 390 428 453 430
La Quinta 209 202 123 137 188
Palm Desert 92 64 44 48 76
Palm Springs 307 364 297 282 256
Rancho Mirage 27 14 17 17 19
---FBI CRIME STATISTICS
And now here's a look at property crime in the past five years. As you can see it has dropped from 2007 levels, but rose back up again some by 2011.
Property Crime 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Cathedral City 1,787 1,633 1,221 1,505 1,783
Coachella 1,560 1,651 1,354 1,623 1,697
Desert Hot Springs 1,718 1,570 1,511 1,380 1,463
Indian Wells 272 212 170 177 151
Indio 2,830 2,827 2,821 2,729 2,610
La Quinta 1,620 1,563 1,573 1,288 1,428
Palm Desert 2,914 2,622 1,927 1,911 2,147
Palm Springs 3,519 2,672 2,361 1,973 2,304
Rancho Mirage 1,067 898 604 555 723
--FBI CRIME STATISTICS
Cathedral City Police say these numbers are a useful tool.
"To see whether or not we've had an increase, decrease, or we're staying consistent with population growth and socioeconomic times, and things that are going on in the community, so it helps us as a good barometer," said Lt. Charles Robinson with Cathedral City Police.
But many law enforcement agencies are seeing budget cuts.
"But obviously now with budget cuts and staffing reductions, we're starting to see what looks like an uptick in especially property crimes, lately this summer, appears valleywide we've had a little bit more activity than we've had in past years with our property crimes," said Lt. Robinson.
And while police use their resources to address those crimes, they also recommend people take precautions by locking doors, windows, garage doors and not leaving valuables in plain sight.





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