2014 Crime Statistics in Downtown Birmingham

10 years ago when I told people I lived downtown, the first thing they would ask is "aren't you scared?" It's been a long time since anyone asked me that; now they ask "Where do you buy groceries?" The perception that downtown is dangerous has diminished a lot over these 10 years and even without numbers you can tell simply by walking down 2nd Avenue on any given Friday night and seeing all the people walking around.

I've written before about people's different definitions of what makes up "downtown" Birmingham, but the area I think of as downtown is pretty analogous to the CAP district even though 2nd Avenue Storage is a block outside of their official coverage area. Despite the perception 10 years ago, even then the crime rate was one of the lowest in the metro area. In 2014, it was the same as Mountain Brook and Vestavia, and lower than Hoover. Take a look at the 2014 numbers on CAP's website.