Recently an article appeared in The Ledger that identified Bartow as Polk County’s new crime “hot spot”. While the facts represented in the story are accurate (we have had a recent uptick, especially in property crimes), the article doesn’t tell all of the story.

In 2016 & 2017, Bartow had the lowest crime rate since 1971. Over the last 40 years, our crime rate has decreased while our population increased.

What this means is that during periods when we do experience a rash of criminal activity, the percentage of increase can look disproportionately high. For example, if you usually have 1 stolen bike a year in your city and this year someone steal 2 bikes, you’ve just experienced a 100% increase in stolen bikes! ?

The example is a little silly, but it illustrates how easy it is for stats to be misleading, especially when they are provided with little to no context.

The most appropriate way to evaluate the relative safety of the city is to look at what the trend line looks like over time. And, our trend line is moving in the right direction.

Here’s the deal. We know we have a property crime trend in Bartow and our police department has taken some aggressive steps to correct it. While the number of crimes is up, so are our arrests. And, most of the thefts that are occurring, happen when residents (myself included sometimes) forget to lock their doors.

Every elected official in this city will tell you we view our #1 job to be the safety of our residents. Of course, we want a crime rate of zero, but that is not realistic. Our police department does an excellent job. I am grateful for the job they do to keep us safe.