All across the United State, the rate of crime has continued to drop. And in our city of Dallas, the crime rate has gone down for the eighth consecutive year. This is exactly the opposite of what experts predicted - the expectation, especially in a recession, was that crime would increase.

The overall amount of crime in Dallas decreased by 4-percent in 2011 and the number of murder cases dropped from 148 to 133, which is the lowest number of murder cases in over 40 years. In total, violent crime has gone down by about 9-percent, which actually marks the 10th straight year of violent crime reduction.

Crime in just about every category has gone down:

• Robberies dropped by 9-percent
• Rapes dropped by 16-percent
• Aggravated assault dropped by 7-percent
• Burglary dropped by 4-percent
• Theft dropped by 3-percent

As for why crime in Dallas has kept decreasing, police credit an increase in staffing, improved technology and summer crime initiatives among other reasons. Whatever the reason, residents of Dallas can sleep a little easier at night.