Study: Flint is nation's 3rd most dangerous city

FLINT (WJRT) (WJRT) -- (11/19/07)--It's a dubious distinction for the city of Flint. A new study now calls Flint one of the most dangerous cities in the country.

It's a ranking being disputed by Flint city officials. The annual ranking is put together by a publication called the Citizens Quarterly Press.

And their list this year claims Detroit is the most dangerous of United States cities. St. Louis is second, and Flint, for the second year in a row, is the third most dangerous city in the country.

Flint's police chief flatly says the numbers are wrong.

"Here we go again," said Police Chief Gary Hagler. "I've been saying it for years. People are misusing the data. They're reinterpreting the data and now the FBI is saying it widely."

The problem, says Flint's police chief, is that when the CQ report takes a look at Flint crime numbers and compares it with the rest of the nation, they're not comparing it to all the cities in the country.

Some of the bigger cities never even turned in their crime data. And smaller cities, like Saginaw and Benton Harbor, were not even counted. And even the FBI, this time, is issuing that warning.

"The FBI is saying, 'Don't play with the data. Don't manipulate the data,'" Hagler said.

"And if all cities that submitted data were included, we would fall significantly within our state, and I would almost guarantee we would drop out of the top ten."

Even if you were to recalculate the rankings, former mayoral candidate Dayne Walling says the numbers still reflect the fact that Flint has a serious crime problem that detracts business investors from the area.

The police chief counters, saying the numbers don't reflect the fact that in Flint, crime numbers for the past months have dropped.

"That's old data that they're analyzing," he said. "It's from last year. We're talking about real, live data from this year after our jail has opened and crime is dropping."

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