I'd feel much better about using statistical crime stats to analize the quality of life we're experiencing in our city, if there were some bigger plan in place that would allow us (as citizens) to determine whether or elected officials and paid officials were actually doing a good job.
I know this sounds like a wild idea, but maybe we should benchmark where we're at right now, and ask for a written plan (from the City & MPD) that shows continual improvement in all areas related to safety and livability. Obviously, whether or not someone chooses to commit a crime is not something that we can control. However, when continued patterns of crimminal behaviour occur in very specific geographic areas, I suspect we should be able to demand (and receive) a concrete plan that shows what will be done to bring about specific change and how those projections actually "shook-out" compared to the actual outcome.
In finance, we used to call it budget forecasting. And our quarterly managers meetings were used in part to hold managers feet to the fire, when they weren't performing.
Dennis Plante Jordan
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