Response to News Briefs (Saturday and Sunday)

(Posted 24 Jan 2006)

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To: PG-Politics@yahoogroups.com
From: "Perry, Steven"
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 10:09:09
Subject: RE: [PG-Politics] News Briefs (Saturday and Sunday)

D.C. Russell,

Thanks for posting the maps of the homicides for 2005, it confirmed my suspicions that the area nearest to high crime, poverty, and lower priced housings in the district would also have higher rates in the adjacent county. The article a few days later by Tiesha Higgins did a great job, dis-entagling the myth that all of PG is a Gory murder zone.

In addition to geography being important to further understand the problem and finding a solution, I was wondering if you had a tally by age and gender of the 2005 victims? Also, the types of weapons? That can be shared with the group.

As for geography, we know an estimated 70% occured in the PG disitrcts 1 and 3. Does the data suggest that young black males, age XX to XX, are more likely to be vicitms or they died at the hand of a offender with a gun?

Steven W. Perry, Statistician
Bureau of Justice Statistics
U.S. Department of Justice
810 Seventh Street, NW
Washington, DC 20531

To: PG-Politics@yahoogroups.com
From: "Karl B. Hille"
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 10:48:14
Subject: Re: [PG-Politics] News Briefs (Saturday and Sunday)

Mr. Perry,

You mean, the statistics compiled by the police department don’t give this kind of information?

I would think at the Bureau of Justice Statistics you would have the most up to date official data from PGCPD.

Karl B. Hille

To: PG-Politics@yahoogroups.com
From: "Perry, Steven"
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 12:50:58
Subject: RE: [PG-Politics] News Briefs (Saturday and Sunday)

No, this is the wrong assumption. The FBI receives the annual reporting of Part I offenses provided by the local police departments, see table 10 for MD
(http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_04/offenses_reported/offense_tabulations/table_10.html#md).

However, in the summary of the reports (table 2), the FBI provides an aggregated break down of murder by age, race, and etc., for the entire U.S. in the front part of the Crime in the U.S., 2004. The county level detail on these demographics may be reported to to the FBI, but it is not published for each county.

As my interest in this subject, as a resident, does not authorize an official special tabulation request of this data from the FBI. Also, BJS does not get data directly from the police departments on crime, as this is a functions for the FBI only. Therefore, this type of data must come directly from the local departments if it is to reach the public. However, I noticed in the reports of the homicides that the age of the victims was noted and curious that no one is conducts frequency analysis for patterns, etc.

What I think would be interesting is if the PGPD published or released an annual "Crime in Prince George's County." or even the State of Maryland. For instance, the State of Oklahoma publishes a book just like the FBI, but for it's State.

Information leads to success, especially if it is actually used to fix the problems.

To: pg-politics@yahoogroups.com, pg-politics@googlegroups.com
From: "Diane C. Russell"
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 12:54:32
Subject: [PG-Politics] Re: News Briefs (Saturday and Sunday)

My information is incomplete. I'm missing a few people and some details for others--if you've read the Higgins article in the Gazette, you'll understand why. As soon as I can finish finding what I can, hopefully by the end of the month, I'll be posting lists of victims by:

• Age group (decades) (just about half were age 20-29)
• Zipcode (20743 stands out as having the most homcides)
• Council district (7 accounts for about 25%)
• Legislative district (24 and 47 are virtually tied with a bit over 25% each)
• Distance from DC and/or within or outside the Beltway

I've started posting most of this information on a current basis for 2006 victims, and plan to create and maintain a Google map of 2006 homicides.

I have not captured or compiled gender data, and don't have racial data. Neither the police nor the press report publicly on the race, nationality, criminal history, or immigation status of individual victims, so it is all but impossible for a mere taxpaying citizen to analyze those factors. The Gazette article does have some summary information on those factors, the Post and Examiner also reported some similar analyses earlier.

From the limited information available to me, I suspect that male Latino illegal immigrants are in more danger of being murdered than even young Black men, but I do not have the data or resources to check that hypothesis.

To: PG-Politics@yahoogroups.com
From: "Perry, Steven"
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 13:29:35
Subject: RE: [PG-Politics] Re: News Briefs (Saturday and Sunday)

As mere taxpaying citizen, I submit that you are doing a excellent job!!! In the 1980's and 90's many agencies talked about community policing strategies and programs, but I believe the work you are doing better defines that. A citizen providing information such as yourself will better serve the community to wake up and not only see what they hear on the news, but know what is happening right down the street. If it were not for you, I would not have known there were two homicides in Clinton, MD in 2005.

Thank you!

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Filed in: GoryPG