LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — With the November election just a few weeks away, the race for Little Rock Mayor has had a lot of eyes on it.
During a mayoral forum on Monday night, candidates addressed the issue of violent crime
"The most dangerous city in America is Little Rock, Arkansas," candidate, Steve Landers said.
Landers made that claim during Monday night's mayoral forum and cited the FBI as his source.
We reached out to the FBI to get answers.
While the FBI does track violent crime data, a spokesman with the bureau said that the agency doesn't have a ranking system of the most dangerous cities in the country.
UA Little Rock Criminal Justice Professor, Tara Martin, explained that there are several factors that go into the data, so rankings might not always be accurate.
"The data are reported by police agencies to the FBI, and the data that they report is only the data that they know about. And we know from surveys of victims that more than 50% of crimes are not reported to the police. And then agencies across the country voluntarily report their data to the FBI," Martin described.
Last year, around two-thirds or 12,000 of nearly 19,000 law enforcement agencies provided numbers to the FBI.
"Be cautious comparing city to city because agencies don't always report to the FBI. So another city that might have more crime might not have reported at all and so they would not be compared to Little Rock," Martin said.
The most recent crime stats from the city have shown that violent crime is down six percent compared to last year, homicides are up 21% and robberies are up 19%.
The big question ahead of the upcoming election is how does each mayoral candidate plan to lower crime in the city?
Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said that working to lower crime in Little Rock is something he's already been working on.
"We've created a true short-term and long-term plan of action. That's the reason why violent crime is down a negative 6%," Mayor Frank Scott Jr. explained.
During Monday night's forum, Steve Landers pointed to a three-point plan.
"We got to build with Pulaski County Sheriff's Department, Arkansas State Police, North Little Rock Police Department, we got to work with them because crime has no boundaries... We got to find better technology training and canines, professional canines... We need to recruit, train and certify police officers to hold to work our city's neighborhoods" Landers said.
Candidate Glen Schwartz highlighted overcrowding in jails as an issue.
"If you end the war on drugs and free all that space up, then people who are busted for violent crimes or crimes of robbery or real crime will spend a lot more time behind bars," Schwartz said.
Greg Henderson's plan is more grassroots-based.
"We have to work with our neighborhoods, we have to involve them in the plan, we have to involve our citizens in the plan to actually make actions that we all own. And we all are a part of, we have to make sure that we look at long-term solutions too," Henderson said.