Local crime is often the focus of residents’ concerns about safety in their communities. Many city or county police agencies produce detailed statistics of crimes in their jurisdiction, typically broken down into zones (or sectors, districts, precincts), and further sub-divided into beats and neighborhoods, and sometimes mapped to US Census Bureau census tracts.
About seven-in-ten Americans who get news about local crime say they do so from friends, family and neighbors or from local news outlets. About a third of those who consume local crime news say they are very concerned about how the crime might impact them personally or their community. These figures are higher among Black Americans, who also tend to more closely follow local crime news than other racial or ethnic groups.
The public also has a keen interest in crime trends and how they compare to state, national or local averages. Whether they are interested in a specific neighborhood or want to understand how their local community stacks up to its larger counterparts, Americans may seek out information on crime through online tools or by connecting with police officers and community policing officers.
Almost identical shares of people who identify as Republicans and Democrats, or as independents who lean toward either party, report that local crime news makes them feel concerned about what is happening in their community. They are also similarly satisfied with most of the sources they turn to for this kind of news, although Democrats who get their local crime news from social media or locally focused apps are more likely than those getting it from TV to say that these types of sources exaggerate or underplay the amount of crime in their area.