For the past several weeks, we conducted a Crime Survey and asked our readers to tell us how they feel about crime in Williamson County. We have sorted through the answers to share some trends and interesting responses. Overall, Williamson County is safer and has lower crime than much of the rest of the state and county. Here is a link to our post comparing crime stats for Williamson County, Tennessee and the country.
But our survey was about hearing how those of us who live in Williamson County perceive crime. After all, how safe you feel is going to matter very much to your quality of life.
General Trends
Based on your responses, a few trends stood out:
-A large majority of respondents have not been victims of a crime while living in Williamson County (81.2 percent).
-The most common crime people were victims of was theft or vandalism (46.4 percent of people who were crime victims).
-Of crimes that people feel is getting worse, after theft or vandalism were drug crimes.
-A majority of people felt like crime, in the last two years, has increased in Williamson County.
-However, the closer to home people were asked about, the less likely someone was to feel crime increased.
-Nearly 60 percent of respondents felt like they take as much or more precaution against crime than most people.
-The most common form of precaution people took, besides locking doors (96 percent), was having a dog or having a security system.
-A minority of people felt like their neighbors took the same level of safety precautions as them.
-32.7 percent of people felt gun laws should be stricter; 33.9 percent of people felt they are too strict.
-Many comments said something that seems like it abides by the rules of common sense: Williamson County is growing, and naturally crime is growing with it.
Comments
We left room for comments, because of course no survey is perfect. Here are some that seem to reflect overall attitudes:
“Having only lived in this area for the last nine years, I’m sure I have a limited perspective on the level of crime in Williamson County. But like any region with an exploding population increase like we have, I’d expect there to also be a slight increase in crime. I wonder if that population increase and the timing of our nation’s financial crisis of the last few years have combined to leave more folks feeling desperate for financial gain. Regardless, it definitely feels like burglaries and home invasions have become more prevalent in our area over the last few years.”
“I feel safer in Williamson County than I would in any other county. I feel like Williamson County does not tolerate crime and if you are caught, you will pay the price.”
“Have lived in Williamson City 31 years and the petty crime has definitely gotten worse.”
“No place is perfect. Williamson County is most likely the safest, most protective place to live in Middle Tennessee. I wouldn’t live anywhere else.”
Conclusions
So as an overall conclusion, judging by the responses, you can say that we in Williamson County consider low crime a reason we live here, though we feel it is increasing overall. We feel like we take a high level of precaution against crime, with theft or vandalism being the kind of crime we are most immediately concerned about. We also believe that drug crimes are getting worse. We have for the most part not been victims of crime, and overwhelmingly feel like the police and sheriff’s department are doing a good job.
[scroller style=”sc1″ title=”Special Report:Crime” title_size=”17″ display=”cats” cats=”5898″ number_of_posts=”12″ auto_play=”5000″ speed=”300″]
