Robberies and the Crime Emergency

Here is some info from MPD-5:

"Over the pastfew weeks we have had about five burglaries on the Northwest side ofP.S.A. 501. They have happened in the very late evening or earlymorning hours. The suspect entered through a first floor window and did this while the residents were home. At least one resulted in a confrontation with the owner and was heading towards a sexual assaultwhen the suspect decided to flee the house.So with that please secure your windows as best you can to prevent anyone from coming into your home. "

In related news, DCWatch has some interesting data analysis on the effectiveness of the crime emergency. Hope you are having a great vacation chief!

Dear Criminalists:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/22/AR2006082201056.html) on the controversy over Chief Charles Ramsey’s vacation says, “When the crime emergency started, robberies were up by 14 percent compared with the same period last year. As of yesterday, robberies were up 8 percent. . . .”

In any case, both a 6 percent decrease and an 8 percent increase are within normal variations in crime statistics, which are often very slippery things. I’d have eaten my words and apologized if the combination of the emergency crime bill and the declaration of a crime emergency had really resulted in a 50 percent reduction in violent crimes. But it didn’t, so I won’t.
Gary Imhoffhemail@dcwatch.com