Officials say North Dakota is the nation's safest state, even as arrests of intoxicated drivers increased.
Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem released the 2004 crime report summary Tuesday. The report gives a rundown of the number of violent and property crimes and arrests in the state for the year. The report also tracks crime statistics over 10 years.
There were no reports of murder or non-negligent homicide in 2004 in Grand Forks County, according to the report.
But Grand Forks County emulated the trend in North Dakota that shows an increase in "driving under the influence" offenses, according to State's Attorney Peter Welte.
"We still see a significant number of alcohol-related offenses in Grand Forks County. Additionally, we're still concerned with the methamphetamine problem here and how to get a hold on it, in so far as it seems to affect so many different agencies within the system," he said.
I think the drunk driving numbers are a little misleading. Sure, arrests are up, but so is enforcement. Pointing to increased arrests as a sign of more crime being comitted is a common error made by people trying to quantify crime rates. People are often surprised when, after a certain law enforcement agency puts more officers on patrol, that the number of arrests go up. They believe this is an indiction of an increased level of crime when, really, its just more officers doing their jobs. When you put more cops on the streets they detect more crime and arrest more people.
Consider that, for the last couple of years, North Dakota law enforcement officers have shifted a lot of focus to detecting and apprehending drunk drivers. That shift in focus is likely what caused this increase in arrests. Of course, the number of people drunk driving in North Dakota may have gone up, but I'm not sure you can reach that conclusion using only arrests as an indicator.