Despite drop in state crime, city crime up

The Philadelphia metro region saw a 6.4% rise in violent crime last year. Despite an overall drop in crime across Pennsylvania last year, violent offenses in metropolitan Philadelphia rose by approximately 6.4 percent. These data were compiled as part of the 248-page annual Uniform Crime Report, which includes crime statistics gathered by law enforcement agencies across Pennsylvania. Overall crime across Pennsylvania dropped .9 percent to 927,601 offenses, while violent crimes -- a category that includes murder, robbery, rape and aggravated assault -- fell 1.6 percent to 48,850. The report also showed that crime was more than twice as likely to occur in Philadelphia as in the city's suburbs. The five-county Philadelphia region had the highest crime rate in the state, with 4,671 serious crimes occurring per 100,000 people. Of those five counties, only Bucks County reported a drop in violent crime. The report also indicated that Philadelphia's murder rate rose by 7.4 percent, from 404 reported in 1994 to 436 last year. That number accounted for more than half of the state's 736 murders. A state police statement was quick to credit Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge (R) with the state's drop in crime. But the statement also attributed nearly .75 percentage points of the .9 percent drop to the report's omission of crime data from Scranton, Pa. The absence of Scranton data also accounts for .5 percentage points of the 1.6 percent drop in violent crime across Pennsylvania, according to the statement. State Police Commissioner Paul Evanko pointed to the "ominous growth" in drug abuse violations as perhaps the most disturbing part of the report. The 34,567 reported drug offenses, a 5.5 percent increase from 1994, marked the highest level in the 24-year history of the report. "This rising tide in illegal drug incidents is clearly an area that should concern all of us," Evanko said in a statement. Overall juvenile crime, as measured by arrests, fell 2.3 percent, while juvenile violent crime arrests dropped 9.5 percent. The report also found that total crime on Pennsylvania's college campuses decreased 7.5 percent, while "hate crimes" -- offenses motivated by bias against an individual or group -- increased by 14.1 percent across the state. A Philadelphia Police Department spokesperson refused to comment on the rise in the city's crime rate, noting that the department had "not yet seen the actual report." And Kevin Feeley, a spokesperson for Mayor Ed Rendell, said Rendell would not comment on the report until he returns to the city later this week.