HOUSTON — KHOU 11 is taking a closer look at the crime data and finding out that what Second Baptist Pastor Ed Young said during his sermon last weekend might not be true.
"Houston in all probability right now is the most dangerous city in America to live in," Young claimed.
The FBI is the agency that keeps crime data from cities across the county and they release it four times a year. Right now, only the first three months of the year are available online.
If you sort the list by overall violent crime, Houston is number one. However, that’s misleading. When we looked at this list, KHOU 11 found Houston is the largest city with complete data.
The FBI recently changed how it collects information, so many cities simply did not report their numbers. For example, New York and Los Angeles are missing from the list and Chicago only partially reported.
KHOU 11 went to those cities’ police departments to get their violent crime numbers. If New York and Los Angeles were on the list, Houston would be number three.
But, that’s just raw numbers. To compare apples to apples, look at the total number of violent crimes based on the population. That gives you the true crime rate.
When you do that, the numbers change. Houston becomes number 14, but keep in mind this is an incomplete list. Cities like Memphis, Detroit and Kansas City all rank above Houston.
Other major cities like Baltimore and New Orleans are missing from the list.