By David Kosub (Contributor)

Warranted or not, the subject of crime regularly seems to come up when discussing Riggs-LaSalle Recreation Center. This was definitely a point of debate amongst neighbors at the October 2020 meeting of the Lamond-Riggs Citizens Association as part of the discussion on the new playground. If you need to come up to speed on the new project, please read a detailed description here and my comments provided to the DC Department of Parks and Recreation. And, mark your calendars for October 14 for the next community meeting on the project.

I personally feel safe in Riggs Park and have no fear about taking my family to the current playground. From my viewpoint, detractors of the playground like to  say that the vast majority of crime—especially violent crime—that happens in Riggs Park centers around the recreation center. But, these are always anecdotes, and we all know that the plural of anecdotes is not data.

So, let’s actually look at some crime statistics pulled from the Metropolitan Police Department’s Crime Map to better understand the issue. In this post, I will show data provided when searching for all reported crimes within 1,000 feet from the Riggs-LaSalle Recreation Center over the past eight years. Note, data for 2020 are as of Wednesday, October 7, 2020. Also, keep in mind when looking at the data, that these numbers may or may not be directly linked to anything going on at the rec center, but specifically within a 1,000 foot radius.

Table 1 below shows the bigger picture of property crime and violent crime since 2012. No surprise, but property crimes outnumbered violent crimes each year. During this time, the total number of crimes trended up, peaked in 2017, then came down since then.

Year	Property	Violent	Grand Total
2012	9	0	9
2013	33	6	39
2014	37	12	49
2015	38	18	56
2016	42	9	51
2017	45	14	59
2018	37	6	43
2019	26	7	33
2020	18	2	20

Table 2 shows a breakdown of property crimes reported near the rec center. These include burglary, motor vehicle theft, theft from auto, and other types of theft. Theft from automobiles is definitely a problem near the rec center, but this is an issue citywide, not unique to Riggs Park. MPD raises this issue quite often at community meetings. Here is your PSA for the day, stop leaving valuables in your car already!

Year	Burglary	Motor vehicle theft	Theft from auto	Theft/other
2012	1	1	1	6
2013	4	8	14	7
2014	4	6	14	13
2015	4	7	15	12
2016	1	0	33	8
2017	4	4	18	19
2018	1	3	27	6
2019	1	2	16	7
2020	1	2	11	4

And, what about for violent crimes, such as assault with a deadly weapon, homicide, robbery, and Sexual abuse? Below are the numbers for your review in Table 3.

Year	Assault w/dangerous weapon	Homicide	Robbery	Sex abuse
2012	0	0	0	0
2013	2	0	3	1
2014	3	0	9	0
2015	12	0	6	0
2016	5	2	2	0
2017	3	0	11	0
2018	3	1	1	1
2019	3	0	4	0
2020	0	0	2	0

Finally, when looking at the method used during some of the crimes, Table 4 below shows  the data for guns, knifes, and other methods. I’m not sure what all is encompassed in “other” here from MPD, and probably do not want to know…

Year	Gun	Knife	Other	Grand Total
2012		1	8	9
2013	2		37	39
2014	4	2	43	49
2015	9		47	56
2016	7	2	42	51
2017	6	1	52	59
2018	4	1	38	43
2019	5	1	27	33
2020	2		18	20

Overall, reported crimes appear to be trending downward in recent years near the rec center. This is also the case for Riggs Park as a whole (see this 2019 post for a decade’s worth of data). To me, this is something to commend and build upon. Moreover, the crime data do not justify to me a reason to fight a new playground coming to our neighborhood that will benefit families and children alike. That being said, one crime is too many of course. I am pleased to hear of residents taking action, providing crime-reduction plans, and working towards engaging folks in our community (yes, that is an overt plug for Tischa Cockrell running for ANC4B).