Is it police numbers or a nice environment that keeps the peace, or is it just a crazy mix?

originally posted by: thisguyrighthere
If you really want to know how effective your police are find the clearance rates for the various departments.

The average rate in the US is somewhere around 30%. That means for all the no-knock SWAT raids, high school drug stings, flashbanged babies, MRAPS, and elderly beatings some 70% of crimes go unsolved.

I tried looking it up for the UK briefly but apparently you guys have another term for it because I was getting something entirely different.

In my town in Ohio the clearance rate is 5.6% and our crime rate is roughly double the national average.

a reply to: Aazadan
Wow, 5% is a really low clearance rate.
We don't have individual stat's for cities & towns in the UK, only for police force area's.
You may have seen my post on the previous page:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

The average for 'all' crimes detected and 'cleared up' by forces in England is a rather poor 27%, with my police area Devon & Cornwall running at 33%. The worst performing force at first glance is West Midlands at 20%, while the best in England is Northumbria at 41%.

...lot's of crimes go unreported or recorded as 'no crime' so the figures for sure are certainly massaged a bit. Either way though, 5% is really low

originally posted by: grainofsand
...lot's of crimes go unreported or recorded as 'no crime' so the figures for sure are certainly massaged a bit. Either way though, 5% is really low

The town I used to live in had a rate of 11.39% with an extremely corrupt police force. They also have the distinction of being the oldest town in America to never solve a murder case (founded in 1788). The only murders they've ever solved involved a confession rather than detective work. But, despite the poor police work, that town had very little crime and is infact considered one of the nicest small towns in America (I lived there for 7 years and never even locked my door).

In the place I live now, you quite simply do not go out after dark unless you're armed and ready to use your weapon. I've even seen car jackings in broad daylight even.