A financial website named McAllen one of the safest cities to live in the United States after looking at data from 200 of the largest cities in the country.
McAllen was recognized as the third safest city by SmartAssest.com, which analyzed a core set of common safety factors, including the following five metrics: violent crime, property crime, vehicular mortality rate, drug poisoning mortality rate and the percentage of the population engaging in excessive drinking.
“This ranking only highlights what those of us in our community have always known: McAllen is a safe city,” Mayor Javier Villalobos said in a news release. “This is because of our law-abiding community and brave, hardworking McAllen Police Officers who, not only protect and serve our community, its residents and countless visitors on a daily basis, but also, have kept our crime rate dropping each year to the lowest it has ever been in the past 38 years.”
According to the release, the data was gathered from the FBI’s 2021 Uniform Crime Reporting Database and countyhealthrankings.org.
The rates for vehicular mortality, drug poisoning mortality and the percentage of the population engaging in excessive drinking are measured at the county level while violent and property crimes are measured at the city level, according to the release.
The study showed that McAllen had the second lowest drug poisoning mortality rate; the seventh lowest percentage of people engaging in excessive drinking; and the eighteenth lowest in violent crime rates, according to SmartAsset.com.
“Our community strives to prevent crime, to promote public safety and to participate in the investigation of crime when it does occur,” McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez said in the release. “At the end of 2022, the City of McAllen recorded its 13th consecutive annual crime reduction and its lowest crime rate in 38 years.”
All four have violent crime rates lower than 90% of the cities across the study
Rodriguez thanked the community and the city commission for their diligence and dedication to public safety.
“The McAllen Police Department administration expresses special thanks to the men and women of the McAllen Police Department for their hard work and successful outcomes,” he said.
Another key finding in the study revealed that cities in Texas are some of the safest in the country.
Four of the top five safest cities with the highest safety ratings are located in the Lone Star state.
“All four have violent crime rates lower than 90% of the cities across the study,” the report said.
Joining McAllen in the top five safest cities in the study are Frisco, which ranked first, McKinney, which ranked second, and Plano, which ranked fifth.
Elsewhere on the border, Laredo ranked seventh while El Paso ranked twelfth.
