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ELB wrote:... there were about 900 robberies in San Antonio each year, and IIRC, only about one-third of them got solved.

This was 1998, so the info is a decade+ out of date, but I'll bet it is not that much different.

The percentage of crimes that are "solved" is called the closure rate. It typically is about 33% for felonies like robbery.

The authorities are also generous to themselves with the definition of closure. It pretty much means they identified a suspect, regardless of whether he ever is arrested, charged, or convicted. Some suspects become fugitives, are never found, or are in prison or dead by the time they are identified. (Crime is one of the more dangerous occupations.)

Also the rate of crimes that are reported is quite a bit less than crimes committed. Many victims do not report crimes because they are apathetic or were themselves engaged in something illegal (drug dealers or prostitutes who are robbed, for example).

- Jim

Just realized I left out a sentence. There's no way the SA Express-News prints 900 robbery reports each year...

No newspaper in a town with a population more than 10,000 reports every crime, or even every violent crime. They report mainly the significant ones that involve deaths or injuries, large amounts of money or goods, carjacking, or suspects that could be identified.

Also robbery is everything from purse-snatching with no injuries to a violent bank or jewelry-store heist.

Some police departments have crime maps online, but I think they are misleading. There is a huge number of crimes like DWI, public intoxication, and drug possession (usually apprehended pursuant to traffic stops), domestic assaults, bar fights, shoplifting, etc., which are not a concern to the average citizen going about his business.

(I am not saying that DWI is not serious—it is—but you can't do much about other drivers who may be intoxicated.)

- Jim