South Bend, Indiana, has seen a dramatic increase in violent crime since Mayor Pete Buttigieg took office 2012, raising doubts about his ability to govern the city of 100,000.
Despite multiple promises and data-driven solutions from Buttigieg, a comprehensive look at South Bend’s official crime data reveals a systemic problem throughout his tenure. Data submitted by the South Bend police department to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting system are available through 2017; figures on 2018 and the first four months of 2019 were released in the public minutes of the South Bend Board of Public Safety meeting.*
Violent crime has risen year-on-year since Buttigieg took office in 2012. Last year marked the highest rate of violent crime in at least 20 years.
The violent crime rate dropped over the first four months of 2019, but the data do not extend into summer, when violent crime reliably spikes. As South Bend resident and crime analyst Ricky Klee noted, South Bend saw a shooting a day in the first 10 days of June alone. A summer spike would be consistent with South Bend’s recent history: Buttigieg even admitted in his first year of office that the shootings in the summer of 2012 were “unacceptably violent.” – READ MORE