Sardis Woods Neighborhood Association

Comparative Crime Analysis for Neighbors of Monroe Road Parcel

For this analysis, Officer Schwartz of CMPD was kind enough to pull up several of the five multifamily properties in similar submarkets (in terms of quality of product). All of these properties were apartment complexes, some of which have just been constructed, some of which have been constructed more than ten years ago. All of the subject properties share a high quality that we, the developer, hope to bring to the Monroe Road project, but some are managed much better than others.

After finding out where these projects were located, Officer Schwartz used GIS to search around the projects in a radius for some data that we could attempt to analyze in order to find trends in crime.

After poring over this data, one can only be led to these conclusions and observations:

Crime is first and foremost a statistic. While the density of housing makes the crime rate in apartment sites higher than single-family per acre, it does not necessarily make it higher per capita. In most instances, the rates in areas surrounding the multifamily site and their neighbors were much higher than within the former. This was particularly true of industrial and commercial sites in the areas (a statistic confirmed by Officer Schwartz).

The frequency of crime in an area is mostly related to its accessibility. In the properties observed where the crime rate did seem higher, in all of the adjoining single-family neighborhoods, there was little to no crime observed. Some of these sigle-family and apartment sites were separated by much less than a steep slope, thick vegetation, retaining walls, a 100' buffer, and a fairly wide creek.

In absolutely none of the sampled sited did the criminals stem from the apartment homes in question -- the arrestees did not live there. This was a statistic also validated by another CMPD representative, expert on gang violence, at the 2007 GIS User Day.

While it may seem only logical that if more people are concentrated in a given area, crime will increase, our data does not show this as being the case on a per capita basis. This misconception might stem from the myth that renters are of a lower socioeconomic class than single-family owners, but that demographic trend has vastly shifted over time. People in their 20's and 30's are renting in increasing numbers for the flexibility and location of the rental property, and people in between homes and jobs need a solid, quality rental market in order to sustain a residence.

It would be simple to be frightened of an increase in crime, given the poor quality of management of the apartment communities on both Monroe Road near the Idlewild intersection, and on Independence, headed out of ton from Village Lake Drive. However, if the community in question is a professionally managed, which would typically include background and credit checks on potential renter, then there appears to be absolutely no evidence that it has any negative impact on adjacent single-family housing crime.

I would be happy to review this data with you or answer any other questions that you might have concerning this issue.

This document was provided by Cashel Rock Investors, in paper form, and transcribed for website publication by Rod Turnham. Please notify Rod of any errors you find here.