The Statistics the Chief Is Not Publishing

So earlier this week, I broke my usual policy and published an anonymous letter. I did so because I believe the writer had a point and it should be shared.

Well, today I am publishing information that I got anonymously as well. The story of how it came into my hands is after the numbers.

This is a summary of the Uniform Crime Report for North Bay Village for 2010. This is information, submitted to the FDLE and the Department of Justice every year by the police force and information that has been requested every month by the commission and the chief has ignored.


North Bay Village Crime Stats 2010

Homicide 1
Aggravated Assault 8
Total Violent 9

Simple Assault 41
Threats 12
Domestic Violence 55

Property Crimes 181
Arrests 47
Percent of Arrests 26%

Value Stolen $330,716
Value Recovered $64,541
Percent Value Recovered 20%

There are some stats that jump out. Most of the value recovered were apparently 10 stolen autos accounting for a recovery value of $63,840.

That leaves non auto thefts at $266,175 and the PD recovered $701.

NBV has three full time detectives working in the city and our detectives are in charge of nonviolent crimes - violent ones go to Miami-Dade for investigation.

The average cost per detective (salary and benefits) is around $100,000 including overhead etc. It would have been a wash if the city has just reimbursed the stolen property. I'm not seriously advocating that as we need a full complement but it certainly bears looking at.

Some stats we don't have are Number of Dispatch Calls, Number of Patrols, Number of Traffic Violations, Number of Red Light Tickets, Number of Emergency Responses. Those would be good to know.

The story of how I got these numbers. In early January, on a Sunday, I came out of my house and saw the flag up on the mailbox. I looked inside and there they were. I don't have verification on their accuracy but I believe them to be accurate. They are certainly plausible.

It's a shame and a disgrace that things have reached a point in North Bay Village where even good news, that North Bay Village has an exceptionally low crime rate, is wrapped in secrecy and it's dangerous to share the information. Unlike the letter in the previous post, here I understand the need for anonymity. I'm sure whoever left it works for the city in or out of the PD and it's dangerous to be seen even talking to me for city employees. We have to shine the light on this city before it's too late.

Kevin Vericker
February 3, 2011