Crime Stats Presented to Danville City Council Public Services Committee

An article by an online website being passed around is calling Danville the most dangerous city in Illinois based upon crime statistics.  But during Tuesday night’s Danville City Council Public Services Committee meeting, both Police Chief Christopher Yates and Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr had some things to say.  Starting with Mayor Williams, he pointed out some important statistics Chief Yates mentioned during a presentation before the committee of Danville crime numbers in 2021, compared to back in 2018.

AUDIO: We’ve gone down, and gone down substantially in seven of the violent crimes, including shootings as well as homicides.  You know we’re only up in a couple of categories; and the areas we’re up, most of them are not substantial.  So I’m really proud of the great work that our Chief Yates and our Police Force have done.  And I just hope that the people will continue to “see something and say something,” because that’s helping us solve crime.

While viewing the display screen, Danville Police Chief Christopher Yates presents some statistics to the City Council Public Services Committee, comparing 2021 to 2018.

Chief Yates pointed out that comparing one city to another is extremely tricky right now for a couple reasons.  Nationwide, under the recommendation of the FBI, there is a transition from the old UCR format of reporting crimes to the new NIBRS format.  Simplifying a bit, NIBRS uses 52 different indexes when classifying crimes, while UCR uses only ten.  Therefore, violent and non-violent crimes, under the old system, are often categorized as all the same, which can be very misleading.  But Chief Yates also said what matters to him is to keep steering Danville in the right direction.  And you do that by honestly observing what’s going on locally, not with an article viewing things from a distance.

AUDIO: You don’t improve the crime rate by not addressing the incidents.  And that’s something that most law enforcement agencies across the nation, they recognize that.   You know data, we have to look at it, and just make sure we understand clearly how the data’s entered and how the data’s collected.  How are we going to analyze it to make it better for our use and doing our jobs better?  I’m concerned about Danville.  I’m the Chief of Police of Danville, and that’s where my attention stays.

Mayor Williams cited two specific examples as mistakes the online publication made.  First, the violent crime rate per 100,000 people for 2020 was listed as 1,050; when it was actually a rate of 566 per 100,000.  Second, it listed 13 Danville homicides for 2020, when the correct total was eight.