OAKLAND (BCN) -- Oakland has the third-highest crime rate in the U.S. and Richmond has the 14th-highest, according to an annual crime report just released by CQ Press.
Camden, N.J. has the country's highest crime rate, according to the report, "City Crime Rankings 2009-2010: Crime in Metropolitan America," based on statistics compiled by the FBI.
The rankings for cities and metropolitan areas include incidents of murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft. The rankings include all cities of at least 75,000 residents that reported crime data to the FBI in those categories for 2008.
CQ Press has acknowledged that its annual crime rankings are considered controversial by some law enforcement agencies and that the FBI, police and many criminologists caution against rankings according to crime rates.
Law enforcement agencies state crime levels are affected by many factors including population density, the concentration of youth in the population, economic conditions, cultural factors, education levels and crime reporting practices.
Accordingly, the crime rankings are often deemed "simplistic" and "incomplete", CQ Press said.
"However, this criticism is largely based on the fact that there are reasons for the differences in crime rates, not that the rates are incompatible," CQ Press said in the release.
Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums was quick to issue a statement refuting the report.
"While the FBI has questioned the validity of these rankings and the U.S. Conference of Mayors says this report is both 'misleading and a disservice to the public,' Oakland's own data says that our city is making progress in bringing peace to our streets," Dellums said.
In his State of the City address on Jan. 1, Dellums challenged the city to reduce crime by 10 percent.
"I am proud to say Oakland has answered the call and implemented a comprehensive strategy that has seen a 17 percent drop in homicides and a 13 percent drop in overall crime -- versus a drop of only 4 percent nationwide," Dellums said.
“While I understand we have a long way to go until out goals are realized, I am proud of the work our city has done and am encouraged by our collaborative efforts," Dellums said.
The mayor cited nine components of the city's Prevention, Intervention, Enforcement and Sustainability, or PIES, strategy to reduce crime.
They include putting more officers on the streets, dividing Oakland into three public safety districts to bolster accountability and provide a more effective command structure, and deploying street outreach workers to address street-level violence by connecting high-risk individuals with opportunities to stay off the streets.
The city also has enhanced weekend and evening law enforcement, Dellums said.
The City Crime Rankings is one of five annual reference books published by CQ Press that analyze and rank cities and states in various categories.
CQ Press is based in Washington, DC, and is a division of SAGE Publications, an independent academic and professional publisher.
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