From the Associated Press June 3, 2010: Mexican border safer for police than big cities, statistics say | cleveland.com Well, which is it? I have been taking it as an article of faith that there has been a terrible uptick in violent crime in the border states. But FBI statistics are almost impossible to "massage". They are dependent on accurate reporting by law enforcement but as best I know, the forms to be used for reporting crime have not been altered and presumably, the SouthWestern states have had a huge incentive to report fully. So do we have a new, terrible crime problem or don't we?