Tulsa ranked 6th most dangerous city

[custosnox]

See, we can do something like the big cities.

Forbes' ranking of Tulsa as 'sixth-most-dangerous city' disputed

By JERRY WOFFORD World staff writer
Published: 10/14/2010  8:22 PM
Last Modified: 10/14/2010  8:22 PM

A magazine has named Tulsa the sixth-most-dangerous U.S. city, but Tulsa police disagree with the assertion.
Forbes magazine looked at FBI statistics on the number of violent crimes and Department of Transportation data on the number of fatal car wrecks per 100,000 residents to determine what it says are the 10 most dangerous cities with populations above 250,000. Oklahoma City came in at ninth.
Topping the list is Memphis, Tenn. Others include Detroit, Mich., and Miami, Fla. The safest city is Plano, Texas, according to the rankings.
However, Tulsa Police Officer Jason Willingham said the study's methodology and the fact that major cities such as Chicago and Las Vegas are not on the list lead officials to question the rankings' validity.
"We don't feel like this is a fair comparison," he said.
The rankings rely on FBI data that are self reported by local agencies, according to the Forbes report.
Forbes' story, published online Tuesday, acknowledges those flaws and says that "determining how safe you'll really be in a city requires a more nuanced look than any ranking can provide."
Willingham said putting Tulsa in the same crime category as much larger cities is disingenuous.
"There's not a lot of random violent crime in the city of Tulsa," he said. "Most citizens in Tulsa overall feel like it's a pretty safe community."

Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/webextra/content/2010/crimesite/article.aspx?subjectid=450&articleid=20101014_11_0_Amagaz406955&rss_lnk=11

[SXSW]

Bad PR for the city, but can't argue with it.  Lots of crime in Tulsa, or at least it seems that way.  Mostly drug and/or gang-related but it's still a problem.  Not really sure what we can do about it though..

[Ed W]

So it's dangerous due to the combination of murders and car crashes?  I'm assuming that's on a deaths per unit of population basis.  It's neither an accurate reflection of crime statistics or car crashes, and in fact, a city can have relatively crime-free streets and a plethora of bad drivers to push it up the ranking.  So in Tulsa's case, a couple of ice storms can make this place look like Beirut.

[custosnox]

Yeah, that whole mixing crime and car fatalities seems a bit off to me.  But dangerous by crime or dangerous by idiot drivers, it's still dangerous. Though that does make it seem like your going to get knifed walking to your car in a wal mart parking lot.

[Ed W]

Yeah, that whole mixing crime and car fatalities seems a bit off to me.  But dangerous by crime or dangerous by idiot drivers, it's still dangerous. Though that does make it seem like your going to get knifed walking to your car in a wal mart parking lot.

Then don't go to wallie world!  Have you ever taken a close look at the people in there?  Most all of us thought 'Men in Black' was just a fictional movie. It's not.  It's a clever disguised bit of misinformation meant to draw attention away from the aliens from outer space living among us, and not surprisingly, working and shopping at wal mart.  Don't go there. 

Did you ever wonder why aliens from outer space abduct people from Arkansas and then consider that walmart corporate headquarters is in the same state?  Cooincidence?  Hardly.

[Conan71]

Yeah, that whole mixing crime and car fatalities seems a bit off to me.  But dangerous by crime or dangerous by idiot drivers, it's still dangerous. Though that does make it seem like your going to get knifed walking to your car in a wal mart parking lot.

After some idiot crashed into it, no less.