Crime Rate

About this measure

A violent crime is a crime in which the offender uses or threatens to use violent force upon the victim. According to the Michigan Incident Crime Reporting (MICR), violent crime includes murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Violence negatively impacts communities in many ways, from direct negative physical and mental health impacts to creating fear and mistrust among neighbors, to reducing productivity, decreasing property values, and hindering a community’s ability to attract and retain residents and businesses.

Policies and programs to reduce the crime rate

• Expansion of the Community Policing model-and evidence-based model that has two core components: community partnership and problem solving. Community partnership involves integrating the police into the community culture so that officers and community members can work together to control and prevent crime. Problem solving is a strategy for trying to determine the underlying causes of crime so that lasting solutions may be found.
• Create a community platform for communication-since residents often have a valuable perspective on the causes of crime in their neighborhoods, their insights are solicited as part of the effort to address problems within the community. Develop a Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Program-an effective strategy and evidence based, to prevent violent re-injury and help victims heal physically and emotionally.
• Implement the Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative that brings together federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement officials, prosecutors, and community leaders to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in a community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them.
• Promote trauma-informed, culturally competent and community-oriented responses to the needs of victims of interpersonal violence.
• Maintain and expand the role of “The Fusion Center”-brings critical context and value to law enforcement through sharing hubs and coordination that provide comprehensive and appropriate access, analysis, and dissemination of data and information.

Resources for this measure

Here are a variety of resources to help community members learn more about resources to keep our neighborhoods safe.

• Battle Creek Police Department
• Neighborhood Planning Councils
• Nixle Community Messages
• Silent Observer
• Community Policing: A Model for Today's Society
• State and Major Urban Area Fusion Centers
• Project Safe Neighborhoods
• National Network of Hospital-based Violence Intervention Programs
• Detroit Crime Commission
• Michigan Crime Victim Services Commission
• Keeping Them Alive

About the data

Definition:	The number of reported violent crimes per 1,000 people.
Frequency:	Annual.
Baseline:	30 (2015)
Target:	10
Rationale:	Crimes are not only costly to the victims and families affected, but also on the community through lower property values and higher taxes. A crime rate of 10 would place Battle Creek in the 75th percentile of the top 10 safest cities.
Source:	Michigan Incident Crime Reporting.