Crime In Your Neighborhood - Do You Know If It's Safe?

Dana Hertneky, News9.com

OKLAHOMA CITY -- We live, work, and play in the city, but do we really know where it's safe?

Marcus Ward lives at an apartment complex in the 4500 block of Sunnyview Lane in south Oklahoma City, and it's no surprise to him that this address has the most crimes according to News 9's research.

"My car's been broken into twice," Ward said.

News 9 studied three crimes for our analysis: assault, burglary, and auto theft.

News 9 looked through every crime that happened during the last three months of 2010 at every address, then cross checked with the News 9 CrimeTracker. We then took our findings to the Oklahoma City Police Department.

"Oftentimes, especially around the holidays, you'll see a slight increase in auto burglaries, people out shopping, but typically it's going to remain about the same," said Oklahoma City Police Sgt. Jennifer Wardlow.

The second highest address with the most crimes was 12600 and 12700 N. Pennsylvania, which is another apartment complex.

"Anytime you have a lot of population whether it be businesses or residences, especially apartment complexes-- a lot of people packed into a small area-- you're going to have higher numbers of incidences like these," Wardlow said.

In addition to being the area with the highest number of crimes, Ward's neighborhood also has the most burglaries. That address along with 4500 Cherry Hills Lane, which is the next block, over accounted for 28 burglaries in those three months.

"Not just me, other guys have told me that their car's been broke into, their apartment's been broken into. One guy got everything in his apartment almost stolen," Ward said.

"But crime doesn't just happen where you live. Something like going to a movie can put you at a high risk address.

The Tinsletown Theatre at 6000 Martin Luther King Blvd. tied for the most auto thefts with five cars stolen during the three months. The Highlands Apartments also had five car thefts.

When it comes to assaults, two schools topped our list: Douglas High School at 900 N. Martin Luther King had a total of 14 reported assaults. Webster Middle School came in second with 11.

Still Wardlow emphasized that in all the areas, there's a high density of people and chances are you're still going to be safe.

"It's just common sense. If you have an area with more people in it, you're going to have a higher number of crimes and incidences reported," Wardlow said.

But Ward, said in his neighborhood he has no doubt that the odds are against him.

"You work hard for your stuff, and then anyone can come take your stuff, that ain't right," Ward said.

The Oklahoma City Police Department said they don't assign more officers to higher crime areas.