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Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame
There's no doubt crime has increased on all fronts, but Davidson is not wrong about the stats argument. It's more effective to talk in large percentage increases when conveying a message to the general public. Media and politicians use this all the time (UCP waxed this all the time during the last election about the corporate tax rate). If you had two murders in a town, and the previous year you had one, that's a 100% increase in the murder rate. And someone will most likely contextualize as such.
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True, and the actual report (linked in the original news article) breaks all that down and shows the numbers behind the percentages.
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The report also uses statistics within a 250m radius of the Shumir compared to previous numbers. What did they expect to find? Lower numbers? Maybe its more accurate to measure against similarly-position urban consumption sites in other similar cities and see what those fluctuations are.
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I think that showing the area against itself is a good thing, showing that there is much more of an increase than was expected or we were 'sold on', as it were. And it shows exactly how this site is affecting that neighborhood. But I also think it'd be handy to have some other-city comparison numbers for their 250m buffer zones, too, to see how Calgary stacks up overall.