FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Fort Pierce mayor Linda Hudson called the city safe on Friday.
This comes after Monday’s mass shooting at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day occasion that claimed the lifetime of a 29-year-old mom and injured seven others.
Contact 5 seemed on the metropolis’s crime statistics to take a look at the mayor’s declare.
The most up-to-date numbers present that violent crime is larger in Fort Pierce than in most different Florida cities, however the identical numbers present that the general crime rate has been falling. Some residents mentioned they discover that onerous to time imagine in the wake of Monday’s tragedy.
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Daserie Glanton works at a comfort retailer positioned a few half mile south of the park the place the taking pictures befell.
When she heard that Hudson known as the town protected, Glanton mentioned, “I don’t think so.”
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So, who’s proper?
The 2019 FBI uniform crime statistics present Fort Pierce’s crime rate is falling. But in terms of violent crimes, Fort Pierce’s rate is 46% larger than the nationwide and Florida common.
Overall, crime in Fort Pierce is 36% larger than the Florida common and 38% larger than the U.S. common.
“It’s like cowboys and Indians out here,” Glanton mentioned.
Outside Glanton’s retailer, older males performed scratch-off tickets Friday. One individual promised to maneuver to a safer a part of city if he hits it large.
For Glanton, whose teenage sons survived gunshot wounds in separate incidents, she would not see the place the crime rate is falling in this a part of city.
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“I don’t know where is safe,” Glanton mentioned. “I don’t even know where to even search because there’s so much going on here in Fort Pierce. It’s scary.”
Ann Montesano’s realty agency is positioned in downtown Fort Pierce. She calls this space spirited, vibrant and busy the place nobody worries about their security.
“If they didn’t feel safe here, they wouldn’t come here,” Montesano mentioned.
It wasn’t simple to get an up-to-date have a look at crime numbers in Fort Pierce, as a result of the town’s police division and each different regulation enforcement company in Florida didn’t submit annual statistics to the FBI for its reviews.
Still, the final decade of complete reviews in this metropolis present general crime is falling however with larger violent crime charges than most different Florida communities.