slides: The 50 Most Violent Towns and Cities in Oregon 2013

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Taya Alami, GoLocalPDX Reporter

What are the most violent communities in Oregon?

On Monday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released its annual report tracking the nation’s violent crimes. The data is broken down on a state-to-state, city-to-city basis and includes all reported murders, aggravated assaults, robberies and rapes.

The report stated that the national crime rate decreased by 4.4 percent overall compared to 2012.

The information has been released since 1930 and is often referred to as an indicator for how much funding a given law enforcement agency may require, but is generally not used to make decisions pertaining to how an agency prevents crime.

The city that had the highest amount of violent crime in relation to its population was Medford. Police Chief Tim George, who calls himself a "numbers nut" and said he reviews his department's monthly crime reports frequently, doesn't agree with the data - which shows larger cities than Medford reporting relatively similar rates of aggravated assault.

"I'm not sure this comparison is apples-to-apples. Something is going on," George said. "I think there's something wrong with the way people (in law enforcement) are reporting aggravated assaults."

According to George, there's a disconnect between how law enforcement officers are categorizing aggravated assaults from agency to agency. Despite being nearly twice the size of Medford, Salem reported 328 instances of aggravated assault.

"And we have 320? That's crazy," George responded.

George said the Medford Police Department's definition of aggravated assault may be more inclusive than other agencies. Also, fewer reports of crime doesn't necessarily consistitute a safer city, as a more active police force is bound to collect more reports of crime than it would if it was less active. As George said, just because you don't catch a fish doesn't mean there aren't any out there.

"If we were number one in violent crime, I would be going to the City Council and asking for more resources," George said

George added that an important factor to consider when examining crime is the amount of reported cases that are solved. George said the rate at which most serious crimes in Medford, including those in the FBI's violent crime classification, are solved is 40 to 45 percent - a relatively high figure.

FBI Public Affairs Specialist Beth Anne Steele said the Bureau collects and presents the data as a public service.

"As far as local trends, we always refer people back to the local juristiction," Anne Steele said.

“Crime ebbs and flows,” Gresham Police Detective John Rasmussen said. “We’ve had recent statistics and studies saying gang crimes are down, at the same time I can say that’s really a day-by-day assessment.”

For the City of Portland, the new information can be seen as a moral victory. Sergeant Pete Simpson of the Portland Police Bureau said the fact that the state’s largest city isn’t also the most violent “is a good thing.”

“We'd like to become even safer next year,” Simpson said.

Rasmussen said he wouldn’t expect any police officers to be surprised by the data released by the FBI.

“(Police officers) know that intimately because they’re combatting that every day,” Rasmussen said.

With such a large number of violent crimes committed out of passion, or committed by residents of other cities, it can be especially difficult to predict where and when a crime will take place.

That’s why it’s hard to build a crime-prevention plan with big data, Rasmussen said, “it fluctuates.”

The most murders Gresham has had in recent memory was seven in 2010. During 2009, however, no one was murdered in the city. A number of shootings that occurred around the state last year involved gang activity, according to Rasmussen.

Gresham, a city of 110,000 residents, had 611 reports of violent crime in 2013 including five murders. One of the biggest obstacles the city must overcome in order to fight crime, according to Rasmussen, is getting more officers on the street. With 110 sworn-in officers, The Gresham PD is understaffed compared to other large cities.

“A night shift may have seven (officers) on patrol because that’s what the budget allows,” Rasmussen said.

By the Numbers

The report consisted of data that was voluntarily submitted by local and federal law enforcement agencies, including campus and tribal police departments, to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

The information presented in the FBI’s report only pertains to one year of crime, not five years of crime like in the GoLocalPDX.com piece 5 Towns More Dangerous Than Portland.

The categories of violent crime included murder and non-negligent homicide, aggravated assault, robbery (theft involving a face-to-face confrontation) and two definitions of rape.

Included in the report are instances of sexual assault.

It’s difficult to compare the FBI’s sexual assault numbers from year to year because the Uniform Crime Reporting Program broadened its 80-year-old definition of rape in late 2011 to “penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.” The new definition, which took effect in 2013, encompasses more cases, including sexual assaults committed against male victims.

Sarah Keefe, the health systems coordinator of the Oregon Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, said the change to the definition of rape is significant, considering sexual violence can happen to anyone regardless of their gender identity.

Compared to other crimes, sexual assaults are notoriously underreported, making an accurate understanding of the volume and scope of rape nearly unobtainable.

“Overall we’ve cultivated a society with a very high tolerance for violence and sexual assault,” Keefe said. “It’s very difficult to look at sexual assault - not only on the individual level but on the cultural level.”

Related Slideshow: Oregon’s 50 Most Violent Cities

GoLocalPDX ranked Oregon's most violent cities based on the latest Federal Bureau of Investigation crime data from 2013. See if your city made the list.

slides: The 50 Most Violent Towns and Cities in Oregon 2013

Related Slideshow: Oregon’s 50 Most Violent Cities

#50 Molalla

#49 Hillsboro

#48 Milwaukie

#47 Cornelius

#46 Gaston

#45 Fairview

#44 Rockaway Beach

#43 Aumsville

#42 Ashland

#41 Springfield

#40 Scappose

#39 Keizer

#38 Cottage Grove

#37 Umatilla

#36 Central Point

#35 Lebanon

#34 Phoenix

#33 Gladstone

#32 Carlton

#31 Tillamook

#30 McMinnville

#29 La Grande

# 28 Banks

#27 Bend

#26 Mount Angel

#25 Boardman

#24 Eugene

#23 Prineville

#22 Eagle Point

#21 Dallas

#20 Baker City

#19 Stayton

#18 Grants Pass

#17 Pendleton

#16 Redmond

#15 Salem

#14 Woodburn

#13 Forest Grove

#12 Astoria

#11 Klamath Falls

#10 Coos Bay

#9 Gervais

#8 Lincoln City

#7 Lakeview

#6 Newport

#5 Toledo

#4 Portland

#3 Gresham

#2 Ontario

#1 Medford

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