Demographics
Fort Lauderdale is a city located on the south-eastern coast of Florida. It is situated between Miami and Palm Beach. Fort Lauderdale is the seventh largest city in Florida, with a population of 165,521 people, according to 2010 census figures (USCB, 2015). The United States Census Bureau estimated city’s population at 178,590 as of July 1, 2015 (USCB, 2015). This represents an increase of 13,069 residents or around 8 percent. The percentage of people under the age of 18 living in Fort Lauderdale in 2010 was 17. 6. The people from 18 to 24 years of age accounted for 8.1 percent, 28.4 percent were under the age of 44, and 15.3 percent were over 65 years of age (USCB, 2015).
The census file for 2010 reports that people of Hispanic or Latino origin accounted for 13.7 percent of the city’s population. 2.5 percent were of Cuban ancestry, 2.3 percent Puerto Rican, 1.7 percent Mexican, 1.1 percent Colombian, 0.9 Guatemalan, 0.8 percent Salvadoran, 0.6 percent Honduran, and around 0.5 percent shared Peruvian background (USCB, 2015).
According to 2010 census, 31 percent were of African ancestry. 10 percent of them were West Indian, 0.6 percent Black Hispanics, and 0.5 percent Sub-Saharan African. Out of 10 percent of West Indian ancestry, 6.4 percent were Haitian, 2.5 percent British West Indian and 0.1 percent shared Trinidadian and Tobagonian background (USCB, 2015).
According to the 2010 US Census file, 52.5 percent of Fort Lauderdale were of European ancestry. Among them, 10.3 percent were of Irish background, 10.1 percent of German background, 8.1 percent of Italian background, 7.1 percent of English background, 3 percent of Polish background, 2.1 percent of French background, 1.9 percent of Russian background, 1.7 percent of Scottish background, 1.2 percent of Scotch-Irish background, 1.0 percent of Dutch background, 1.0 percent of Swedish background, 0.6 percent of Greek background, 0.6 percent of Hungarian background, 0.5 percent of Norwegian background and around 0.5 percent of French-Canadian background (USCB, 2015).
In 2010 around 1.5 percent of Fort Lauderdale’s population was of Again ancestry. Out of the 1.5 percent, around 0.5 percent were Indian, 0.3 percent Filipino and Other Asians, 0.2 percent Chinese, 0.1 percent Vietnamese, 0.1 percent Japanese and around 0.1 percent Korean (USCB, 2015).
As of 2010, 47.2 percent of Fort Lauderdale’s population were women and 52.8 percent were men (USCB, 2015).
Crime
According to Fort Lauderdale Police Department, 409 individuals work in the city’s Operations Bureau (2016b). Among them the Assistant Chief and three Majors, ten shift captains, 38 sergeants and 315 sworn officers. There are also 42 members of support staff and public service aides. They provide law enforcements tasks for the three Police districts in Fort Lauderdale. The department makes approximately 17,000 arrests annually (FLPD, 2016b). According to the Uniformed Crime Report, the number of all crimes except for the aggravated assault and sex offenses was higher in 2010 than in 2015 (FBI, 2011, 2015). The rates of homicide have dropped by 30 percent (FBI, 2011, 2015). There was also a significant reduction of robbery cases: from 627 in 2010 to 200 in 2015. Fort Lauderdale saw a significant decrease in aggravated assault rates: from 617 cases in 2010 to 420 cases in 2015. The rates of forcible sex offenses were also decreased by 6 percent (FBI, 2011, 2015). The rates of nonviolent crime have dropped by 21 percent on average between 2010 and 2015. The city saw an overall decrease in all crime by 8 percent in the period from 2010 to 2015 (FBI, 2011, 2015).
There are two most common explanations for the falling crime rates. One states that improving economic conditions have led to the drop in criminality. Another argument posits that the majority of potential offenders are already incarcerated (Howe, 2015).
References
FBI. (2011). Offences Reported to Law Enforcement: January to December 2011. Web.
FBI. (2015). Offences Reported to Law Enforcement: January to June 2014-2015. Web.
FLPD. (2016a). Citywide. Web.
FLPD. (2016b). Operations Bureau. Web.
Howe, N. (2015). What’s Behind the Decline in Crime?Forbes. Web.
USCB. (2015). Fort Lauderdale City, Florida. Web.