Crime (or relative lack thereof)

The most recent newsletter suggested that we have some residents who suspect that there's a fairly high level of crime in this neighborhood.  That idea is not supported by fact, at least, not relative to other comparable suburban neighborhoods.  Here is a screengrab summarizing reported incidents over the last six months, roughly mid-July 2010 through mid-January 2011:

http://www.crimereports.com/
The red placeholder represents the address of one of the model homes
and does not indicate any incident there.

It might appear at first glance as if there are many flags shown here, but let's go through them (the map icons provide thumbnail details of the crimes when clicked, so that's the info I used to make this summary):

• All of the "assault" (orange "A") flags appear to relate to incidents in which the involved parties were known to each other.  Most of these appear to be typical family violence type incidents.  Where family violence is not explicitly stated in the summary, I get the feeling from the case statement that there was a specific relationship that preceded the incident.  Why is this distinction important?  Because isolated interpersonal conflicts do not affect the vast majority of us.  A certain fraction of the population has behaved badly since the beginning of time, and they will continue to abuse each other from here to eternity.  They generally keep to themselves and usually don't present a huge threat to people with whom they are not directly involved.
• None of the motor vehicle thefts ("TV") and the thefts involving automobiles (a couple of the "T" markers) appear to have been associated with violence.  One well-known Houston morning radio personality whose name escapes me enjoys making the following sarcastic observation: "Houstonians are famous for keeping three thousand dollars' worth of their unwanted crap in their garages while leaving their thirty thousand dollar cars out to rot in the sun."  When considered from that blunt perspective, it doesn't make much sense, does it?  Especially when those cars contain valuables in plain sight (including wheels), which most of those theft cases did.  Read it and weep - when valuables are visible, thieves will help themselves.  This is true all over, no more so in Centerpointe than anywhere else.  It sucks, but it's unfortunately routine for our society.  This is just more bad behavior of the type that has gone on since the beginning of time.
• The other two theft cases were of the most petty type imaginable: a houseplant and some holiday decor...?!  Good gosh, it appears as if we might have a genuine klepto in our midst!  Can I make a request??  Everyone has a camera embedded in their cell phone these days.  If you see someone who looks like they may be absconding with someone's plastic sunflower, please email me a photo of him or her, because I would relish the chance to investigate and perhaps even do a blog profile of that person if it proved to be warranted!  I bet that would curtail their mischief quite quickly!

In summary, I see no trend of crime in these reports of the type that should cause the average citizen to experience a disproportionate fear for family safety.  There were no random assaults, no home burglaries reported. 

Nor did anything catch my eye when I researched this neighborhood extensively a year ago prior to building our house here.  If you think crime is high here, go to the Crime Reports website and surf to any other suburban neighborhood and look at their stats.  I believe you'll observe that it's all relative. 

An ancillary topic involves the issue of sex offenders.  A resident expressed a perception recently that perhaps there are pedophiles in the neighborhoods that surround us.  Here is a screengrab of Centerpointe and its adjacent areas from the local registration database:

From http://www.familywatchdog.us/

The individual represented by the red flag on the map above has reportedly not re-offended since his 1989 conviction.  This is not an individual about whom I would personally lose any sleep.

Of course, if you zoom out and look at Clear Lake as a whole, you'll find a larger selection of offenders.

URL ibid.  It may look like a lot, but remember that there are probably well over 100,000 people living in this mapped area, and more than 400,000 people living in "greater Clear Lake" (per http://www.texasexplorer.com/).

Again, Centerpointe appears to be in one of the developed suburban pockets that has no registered offenders reported in the immediate area. 

In summary, these data suggest that we are about as safe here as is realistically achievable in our society.   No place is ever perfectly safe, but we appear to be doing quite well overall.    

As for those exasperating thefts and other occurrences, keep your eyes open, and communicate incidents and other oddities to us when you see them (and call the police whenever warranted).  Crime will always occur, but knowledge is power, there's strength in numbers, and pictures tell a thousand words [insert additional various and sundry cliche's here].
:-)