We hope you all had a wonderful and blessed THANKSGIVING! Thank you for your dedication towards making Josephine County, our home, SAFE.
Our next meeting is Tuesday, December 2, 2014, at the Newman United Methodist Church in Grants Pass located at 132 NE “B” Street in Grants Pass from 5:15 PM to 6:15 PM.
NOTES from the last meeting on November 25th, 2014:
FBI Crime Stats:
Archie provided some food for thought regarding the most recent Crime Stats from FBI for Oregon Cities 2013.
David Smith analyzed said stats and made the following remarks:
Some quick calculations based on this spreadsheet. I’ve taken cities above 5,000 population (just because at a certain small size, one crime is enough to make the crime rate per capita look high, and I needed a cutoff somewhere), and ranked crime rates per 1000 population. There are 66 cities in this list with more than 5000 people.
Here are some interesting factoids:
– In terms of violent crime per capita in 2013, GP ranks #15 out of the 66 cities in Oregon with population over 5,000 (Medford is #1)
– In property crime, GP ranks #3 (Seaside is #1)
Where GP ranks on specific crimes:
– Murder & non-negligent homicide #14 – but the top 7 are all small cities with only 1 or (in the case of K Falls) 2 murders; among cities over 25,000, GP is #6 (of 21). (Gresham is #1)
– Rape (revised definition): #11 (Newport is #1; Medford is #4)
– Robbery: #9 (Gresham is #1, followed by Portland)
– Agg assault: #19 (Medford is #1)
– Burglary: #1
– Larceny: #4 (Seaside is #1; Medford is #3)
– Motor vehicle theft: #1
– Arson: #5 (Milton-Freewater is #1; Medford is #2)
GP’s violent crimes per capita were nearly two and a half times the statewide median. Our property crime rate was even worse – 266% of the statewide median.
Note that in only two categories is GP better than the worst 25% of Oregon cities in terms of crime per capita – and that’s only with murder and aggravated assault (where the numbers in any given year are likely to be small, and thus easily skewed by one or two cases). In most categories, GP is in the top 15%, and in all too many we are in the top handful of cities in all of Oregon in terms of both violent and (even more so) property crime.
Small city, big-city crime, for sure.
Note too that these stats are, presumably, just for the city of GP – not for Josephine County. GP is, of course, where we have law enforcement on the streets. Many, if not most, crimes in JoCo outside the city limits are not reported, much less prosecuted. So these statistics likely understate the problem for JoCo as a whole.
Food for thought.
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WE CAN DO THIS!
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to always try one more time.”
Thomas Edison
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SOS Sponsor Report – Jennifer Essick
- This committee met after the regularly scheduled SOS meeting; members included Colene Martin, Brian Pendleton, Jacki Holcomb, Kim Gasperson, Jay Meredith, and Archie Lidey
- Sponsor COUNT TBA
- This committee shall be working on the FORM for our Sponsors
- OUR Goal is to get every business to fly our SOS placard
- Attached is a photo of Frank N Stene’s Monster Growler’s located at 950 SW 6TH Street in Grants Pass (541-450-3980), flying the SOS business placard, where one can sample and fill a Growler with a beer from of one of many local breweries! Try the Nikasi Wunderbier Kolsch…
- If you would like to join this committee, please e-mail Jennifer @ etopps_08@hotmail.com
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