GOP debate mentioned Miami crime rate as up but is that true? Here's what the figures show.
MIAMI -- During the first presidential debate, FOX News debate moderators asked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis about the rising crime rate in Florida, with a specific mention of Miami.
"Crime has been on the rise in Florida, Gov. DeSantis, how do you stop crime?" host Bret Baier asked.
DeSantis was quick to point out that Baier's claim may be false.
"Crime is at a 50-year low in Florida," the governor replied.
The exchange has led some people to ask what does the data show?
David Thomas , a professor of forensic studies at Florida Gulf Coast University, said the issue with the "50-year-low stat" from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and FBI is that it's missing data.
"Forty percent of the population of the state of Florida was not counted in that data," he said. "The FBI made a change to their crime reporting system and every agency in this country is in the process of doing that."
Regardless of the missing info from the most recent FBI report, Alex Piquero, a criminology professor at the University of Miami and former director of the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, said crime overall is in fact down.
"He is right to say that since about 1990, but so is just about every other state," Piquero said.
The conversation did not stop there.
FOX News host Baier interrupted DeSantis and said this record-low stats did not apply to Miami.
"Miami did see, like other cities did, a significant increase in homicides and other violence crimes during the early parts of the pandemic," Piquero said. "But that has actually gone down."
Data from Miami Dade County from the first half of 2022 compared to the first half of 2023 shows forceable sex offenses went down by 12%, burglary decreased by nearly 7%, motor vehicle thefts down by 5%.
Homicide went up by 2% and robbery by 3%, bringing the overall to less than a 2% increase.
"Any increase is not good, but this is not a 10% increase and it's not a 20% increase," Piquero said. "Public safety in Miami is actually very compared to other cities of the same size."
DeSantis however didn't list those stats. Instead?
"Here's the thing," DeSantis said. "These hallowed out cities, this is a symptom of America's decline and one of the biggest reasons is because you have George Soros, these radical left-wing district attorneys that get into office and they say they're not going to prosecute crimes."
DeSantis did not list Miami Sate Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle by name when he called out DAs in response to FOX News host asking about Miami, but CBS News Miami did ask her for comment.
"While I do not know which specific statistics the debate commentator referenced, I believe that crime in Miami-Dade County remains the lowest it has been in decades. According to data from the Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD), it appears that overall crime is more than 9% lower year to date than it was in 2019, the last year before the pandemic. Their data also indicates that the number of murders has dropped as well. MPDD handled 58 murders from January 1 to September 6, 2019 and 49 from January 1 to August 20 of this year. The decades long drop in our crime rate reflects the collective efforts we have undertaken to combat crime in our community and translates into thousands of saved lives.
"I would be remiss in not pointing out that Time Magazine recently noted that Miami saw its violent crime rate decrease by 8%.
"Looking at changes in violent crime rates between 2019 (the year DeSantis took office) and 2021 (the most recent year data were available), we found that three of Florida's largest cities-Jacksonville, Tampa, and Orlando-had significant upticks in violent crime. Tampa led the bunch with a 37% spike, then Jacksonville at 21%, and Orlando at 19%. Miami, on the other hand, saw its violent crime rate decrease by 8%"
