Two of the safest cities in the state are right here in the Valley, according to SafeWise.com, a site that provides reviews for alarm system companies.
Two of the safest cities in the state are right here in the Valley, according to SafeWise.com, a site that provides reviews for alarm system companies.
In their fourth annual report, the cities of Roma and Alton were among the top 50 safest in the state ranked 24 and 45, respectively.
The cities are ranked based on the most recent FBI data reported through the Uniform Crime Reporting program and population data, according to information provided on their site.
Cities with populations less than 10,000 and that did not submit a complete crime report to the FBI were not considered.
They calculated the likelihood of crimes occurring out of 1,000 people in each city by looking at the number of violent crimes – such as aggravated assault, murder, rape, and robbery – property crimes – such as burglary, arson, larceny/theft, and motor-vehicle theft – reported in each city.
Roma had a violent crime rate of 1.97 per 1,000 people and a property crime rate of 10.23 per 1,000 people.
Alton, which was ranked 39th last year, had a violent crime rate of .69 per 1,000 people and a property crime rate of 15.98 per 1,000 people.
Those figures are well below the national crime rates, which are 372.6 violent crimes per 100,000 people and 2,487 property crimes per 100,000 people, according to a news release issued by the FBI regarding their 2015 crime report.
Rates in the state’s most populated areas, however, are well above the national average but are seeing a downward trend, according to a study by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, which was cited by SafeWise in their overall assessment.
The study showed that overall crime decreased in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin and Fort Worth between 2014 and 2015. However, violent crimes did increase in San Antonio and Dallas by 11.8 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively.
