| Eau Claire can be a great place to live, as it has a relatively low crime rate and relatively low unemployment along with excellent education and good healthcare. However, even though the crime rate isn’t particularly high, it’s still a good idea to take steps to limit your risk of being affected by crime. Understanding the types of crime that are more common and the relative risk can help you determine the best steps to take. Overall Crime Rate The overall crime rate is Eau Claire is actually about 5 percent lower than the average crime rate in the United States. However, there are still about 7.42 crimes each day in the city per 100,000 residents, and residents have a 1 in 37 chance of becoming a victim of some type of crime each year. That said, it’s still safer to live in this city than in 49 percent of the other cities in the country. Because Eau Claire is a city and thus has a somewhat high population density, it has a higher than average rate of crimes per square mile, with 57 per square mile compared to a national average of 32 per square mile. Number of Violent Crimes Although Eau Claire isn’t totally free of violent crimes, it does have a rate less than half of that of the national average. About 1.82 violent crimes occur per 1,000 residents each year, compared to a national average of 3.8 per 1,000 residents. This makes it so people living in Eau Claire have a 1 in 551 chance of becoming a victim of violent crime in any given year. The good news is that the violent crime rate decreased by approximately three percent in 2015 compared to 2014. Meth use and sex crimes, including child pornography and prostitution, appear to be increasing, however. Number of Property Crimes When it comes to property crimes, Eau Claire is slightly above the national average, with 26.71 per 1,000 residents compared to 24.9 per 1,000 residents overall in the U.S. Out of this rate, 3.56 of these crimes consisted of burglaries, which is lower than the national average of 4.91. People living in Eau Claire have a 1 in 40 chance of becoming a victim of some type of property crime each year. In 2015, there were 173 residential burglaries, of which at least 27 took place at night and at least 44 took place during the day. The total value of stolen property from these residential burglaries was about $161,087. The number of burglaries overall in the city has been steadily decreasing since 2010. Burglaries have decreased in the area near the University of Wisconsin due to a Vacant House Watch Program that was started to keep an eye on homes where the students are away for vacations and breaks. Another way to minimize the risk your home will be burglarized is to install a monitored alarm system and put up any stickers or signs that the alarm company gives you. Should someone break in while you are away from home, this will notify someone right away of the problem. Also, just the fact of having an alarm system makes you less likely to be targeted, as more than half of burglars prefer to skip homes that have alarms in favor of easier targets. Make sure to also lock all windows and doors when you leave and don’t forget to turn on the alarm system. Police Services The police department in the city consists of 100 officers, as well as 37 other full-time and 14 other part-time employees. This means Eau Claire has a rate of about 2.1 officers per 1,000 residents, which is a bit lower than the U.S. average of about 3.3 officers per 1,000 residents. These officers were responsible for dealing with about 146,536 computer-aided dispatch incidents and 80,339 emergency calls in 2015. Although the police in Eau Claire have an overall clearance rate of about 83 percent, they only manage to clear about 8 percent of burglaries, which is a bit lower than the average in the U.S. of 12 percent. You can increase the chance that any burglary that might occur at your home will be solved if you have a security system that takes a video whenever someone approaches the home and whenever the alarm goes off. This type of video helps to provide the police with potential suspects and can also be used to verify that there actually is a burglary taking place when the alarm goes off, making it a higher priority for police officers. They typically place unverified alarm calls toward the bottom of the priority list as on average in the United States more than 90 percent of them are false alarms. In the U.S., police response times average anywhere from two to ten minutes depending on the location. Burglars try to be out of the house in less than 10 minutes, so getting to the top of the priority list means the police will be more likely to catch the burglars in the act. Safest Areas to Live Within Eau Claire, there are some neighborhoods that are considered safer than others. These include Cleghorn/Lufkin, Seymour, East Clairmont Avenue/Rudolph Road and Brackett. These are also among the most popular neighborhoods in the city, however, so it may be a bit more difficult to find a home there than in other areas. Those who would like to live near the amenities of Eau Claire but in a city with a lower crime rate might want to consider trying Altoona, Lake Wissota, Fall Creek or Elk Mound, all of which have a lower crime rate per 100,000 residents. |
