By Kevin Lavery, KWMU
St. Louis – An annual report on public safety in St. Louis finds crime continues to drop in the city's downtown core.
City police report that crimes against persons have dropped nearly 22 percent from one year ago, and property crimes are down more than 26 percent.
The report marked the third consecutive year such crimes have been on the decrease.
Jim Cloar with the Downtown St. Louis Partnership says despite the positive figures, civic officials still fight public perceptions that downtown St. Louis is unsafe.
"Sometimes there are statisticians who work in a small cubicle in another state and they just look at raw numbers and they don't know what's behind them," Cloar said. "But we look at what's behind them and we try to tell people over and over again."
Cloar says the city core has seen a steady population growth over the last four years. About 7,600 people live in the downtown area.