On Friday, KTRH-740 reported that the release of new, lower-than-expected population figures for Houston affect recent crime statistics that assumed a larger population:
Last month, the Houston Police Department released estimates of the rate of violent crime in the city based on an assumed population of about 2.2 million. But data from the American Community Survey this week said Houston’s population is more like 1.9 million — 300,000 fewer.
The city planning department’s Margaret Wallace says the numbers weren’t fudged — the federal survey was simply done at a different time.
This is why it’s important to consider both raw crime figures and statistics that take population into account, rather than just one or the other.
There was some reason to believe that Katrina evacuees had boosted the population, so I don’t think the planning department was engaged in any effort to deceive. But now that we have the ACS numbers, the estimates should be adjusted accordingly.
PREVIOUSLY: Fuller: Latest population tally doesn’t trigger redistricting.
