A certain magazine/website with an affinity for rankings has once again chosen Memphis for an unfortunate distinction, this time “most dangerous”:
Memphis, Tenn., where gang crime has ramped up in recent years, takes the dubious honor of first place.
But to local law enforcement, the list itself seems, well, suspect.
“We’re trying to figure out how they arrived at the conclusion that gang crime has ramped up,” says MPD deputy chief Jim Harvey. “We don’t know where they’re getting that, because we don’t know that ourselves.”
In fact, MPD’s data shows crime down more than 12 percent from this time last year and down about 29 percent since 2006.
“I don’t understand how Memphis could be number one with the decreases in crime we’ve had,” Harvey says.
Nationally, crime has dropped about five percent, and Harvey attributes Memphis’ stats to the MPD’s Blue Crush initiative.
