Crime Rate in Nampa, Idaho
Hey, Dave Edwards, Treasure Valley Dave here in Nampa, Idaho. And you probably saw that recent story where the Nampa Police Department unveiled a new crime map. Now, you can see in almost real-time the crime that’s going on — in a general sense, in town.
A friend of mine, let me give a hat tip to Anne… Thank you! She’s worried about it. She’s like, “Oh my gosh, it looks like Nampa’s going to Hell. Crime is off the hook!” But is that the case? Let’s take a look.
Crime Map
Recently, the Nampa Police Department unveiled its crime map so citizens can keep an eye on what’s going on in crime in their town, as reported by Channel 7 TV News. So, what were your thoughts when you saw this story? Where is offense running rampant here in Nampa? Is Nampa going to the dogs?
You must look at it in context when you see all these dots on this map. I have some experience with this. We had a very similar system when I was with PD back in California, and let me go through some of my thoughts on this.
It’s a good thing that the police department put out this map. The stuff we see on this map is amazing.
Red Dots
The red dots represent violent crimes. Well, there’s not that many on there. Violent crimes can be anything where a weapon or force was used.
It could be something like a kid shoplifting, and he gets accosted by store security, and then the kid starts punching back. And maybe when he’s punching, he has a Snickers bar or something he’s smacking the security guy with. That’s a violent crime right there.
Orange Dots
The orange dots represent property crimes. They can mean anything from door-checking to walking through a neighborhood at night to seeing if any cars are unlocked. It could also be someone’s taking your gnome out of your garden in the front yard or something like that. It could be shoplifting or stealing a vehicle.
Those are all examples of theft. I’m not trying to sugarcoat anything here. One of the biggest deterrents to crimes like these is to lock your doors. How many of you have neighbors that go out there, start up their truck every single freaking morning, and let it idle without anyone around? Well, there’s a prime example of a car ready to be stolen.
Also, maybe you leave the garage door open while you’re gone all day. So, those are inviting things. Not to say that it’s your fault at all. It’s just that a good way to prevent these kinds of theft is to lock your doors. Piece of cake.
Purple Dots
The purple dots represent disorders or disturbances. So, this could be someone walking around after the bars are closed and drunk but not driving. So, that’s a good thing. It could be a yelling match between some people, loud music, or barking dogs. Maybe your neighbor’s in his garage doing stuff with a big thumpy-thumpy bass cranked up.
When I went to the Nampa Police Citizens Academy, they said that the #1 call for service in Nampa was barking dogs. So, maybe many of those purple dots are barking dog calls.
Blue Dots
The blue dots represent 911 calls or some other concern. What could a 911 call be? Well, it could be a missed dial, someone who doesn’t know the police department’s business line or their non-emergency line. So, they call 911 because that’s the only number they know.
But it could also be a medical emergency of some sort. Maybe somebody fell and needs someone to come out and get them back up. It could be any number of things like that. Or if you’re right there at a car wreck and don’t know if someone’s hurt, what will you do? You’re going to call 911.
The other reasons could be anything. Maybe an officer’s out, and he’s doing a field interview with somebody, and he wants it noted in the dispatch records. So there’s a lot of these dots on there. But don’t let them scare you.
Keep everything in context.
Why Release a Crime Map?
This means that your Nampa police department is engaged in the community. What is this good for?
Well, if you get some of those kids that might wanna do things like graffiti or other nefarious things, they won’t do that if they see the cops around all the time. That might be the case, or we don’t have those kinds of kids here because we don’t have that graffiti problem that we certainly did back in California.
Citizens’ Thoughts
So, what’s your perspective on this? So, I have several friends who work in the Nampa PD. One came up from California and said: “My experience working in the Treasure Valley is that it’s a very safe place to live and raise a family. And that is an objective truth.
“When you look at all the main cities in the valley, Boise, Garden City, Meridian, Eagle, Star, Kuna, Middleton, Nampa, and Caldwell, they all have a crime rate lower than the national average, which says a lot. Now, of course, there is no crime-free city. But living in any city with a crime rate lower than the national average is my priority and should be the standard of what to look for when relocating to a new place.
“There are many reasons for the lower crime rate, but one of them when comparing areas like California is the meager homeless population in Idaho. Idaho ranked the 14th lowest homeless population in the country. Many of California’s high homeless population areas had high rates of violent crime, increased drug use, and high amounts of property theft.
“Placement into shelters here is encouraged, and “tent cities” do not exist. Probably a third of the calls for service I respond to in California were connected to homelessness. Regarding the attitudes towards law enforcement, the community here is very supportive.
“Community members routinely go out of their way to say “hello” and do what they can to partner with the police to solve community quality-of-life issues. Overall, it’s a great place to live and raise a family.”
Would You Move to Nampa?
So, how do you better understand what Nampa’s like — at least as far as crime goes? I think you probably do. And if you want to learn more about relocation or buying or selling a home in Nampa, contact us today.
