Yesterday, I received from our physician recruiter a link to a website showing crime statistics for Allegany County, MD. I looked at it and said, "no way." So I went to alternate sources to verify the data. Actually, the website was accurate. I knew that crime had risen in our region but was blown away to find out that we have substantially more crime than most Maryland cities. In fact, we are only safer than 6% of the cities in the US. Now, much of our crime is property related, but violent crime rose to its current level in the early 1990's and has stayed constant. Fortunately, our murder rate has remained very low at 1.3 per thousand up until last year when rose to 5.5 per thousand. I still think that it's a safe place to live and raise children, but such stats are somewhat disconcerting. We are lucky to have the caliber of law enforcement that we have in that they do solve violent crimes pretty quickly. Within the last few weeks there were a series of robberies at gas stations, culminating with two home invasions over this past weekend. That type of violent crime doesn't set well with the community and within days four suspects were arrested. In closing, this statistical information is certainly worth having as well as being able to explain it to prospective professionals coming to our region.
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