January 26, 2020 9:00 a.m.
Officials with Roseburg Police are disputing an article that called Roseburg the “most dangerous” city in Oregon.
Sergeant Jeff Eichenbusch said as with any report that involves numbers and percentages, oftentimes those numbers can be presented to support something or to make it appear unfavorable. He said in the recent instance, those numbers and percentages were taken at face value, without clear explanation.
The story carried by several Oregon media outlets in recent days, came from information provided by www.lawnstarter.com, which is the website for a lawn care company. Eichenbusch said the article referred to crime statistics reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation by Oregon law enforcement agencies. He said the statistics are broken down into several different crime categories and are also totaled. Based on the numbers reported by an agency there is a determined “crime index” and a “crime rate” for that jurisdiction.
Eichenbusch said that RPD takes pride that they respond to every call for service. That means taking reports for crimes that many other agencies do not. He said for example, many agencies around Oregon do not respond to calls for minor thefts, car break-ins, or vandalism. In addition, some agencies will refer victims to an online reporting system, which Eichenbusch said can lead victims to feel “why bother” making a report if an officer is not going to investigate it. He said not responding to, or not taking reports on minor crime can lead to an inaccurate picture of crime for a particular jurisdiction, especially if it is based on crime data.
Eichenbusch said officials at RPD knew that accurate record keeping could potentially lead to an interpretation like what has occurred. However, he said the department believes that responding to all the community’s requests for service, and accurately documenting crimes, is the appropriate way to do business.
Eichenbusch said Roseburg’s rates for most major person crimes are lower than the U.S. average and only one is higher than the state average. He said Roseburg’s violent crime rate is almost a full point lower that the State of Oregon average and almost two points lower than the U.S. average.
Eichenbusch said any residents with questions about the crime data, are welcome to contact the Roseburg Police Department.