Missouri native Mark Twain made the following statement in a New York Newspaper article in 1895: ‘After all, facts are facts, and although we may quote one to another with a chuckle the words of the Wise Statesman, “Lies - damn lies - and statistics,” still there are some easy figures the simplest must understand, and the astutest cannot wriggle out of.’
Branson Crime Statistics can be deceiving. The reality is that Branson is in a period of high growth and has significant tourist traffic no included in population counts. If we took 7,000,000 tourists with an average stay of four days divided by the number of days in the year we would have an average population nearly 10 times the population in our index.
Police reaction to a rise in incidents has been a slightly larger increase in arrests. We're lucky to have a responsive and concerned police force. In fact, I'm hesitant to post crime incident releases from the Branson PD due to the fact most issues are dealt with so quickly they can be outdated by the time they're posted.
