Many property managers are unaware of the crime conditions in their communities and within their facilities. Unfortunately, this lack of awareness can prove disastrous when an incident occurs and the owner is sued for negligent security. It is important for property owners to have a firm understanding of the types and frequencies of local crimes in order to establish if they are on the rise or declining. To obtain a clear picture of these trends, it is essential to get several years worth of police crime statistic reports and compare them year-to-year to determine if certain crime categories are on the increase or decreasing.
Roughly three-quarters of Americans say they often or sometimes get news about crime in their local community, more than the shares who say the same about weather (7%) or government and politics (68%). And although violent crime is relatively rare compared to property crime, people are just as likely to report seeing news of murders and rapes locally as they are to see stories about car thefts and burglaries.
However, when it comes to gaining insight about broader patterns and underlying causes of local crime, more Americans say it is hard than easy to stay informed on this topic. This may be partly because official national crime statistics are reported months after the fact, which can make it difficult to recognize and respond to emerging crime trends. In contrast, Live Crime Tracker is a tool that monitors local criminal incidents in real time to provide actionable insights sooner.