Spokane Ranked 19th-Safest City In America
Spokane is among the top 20 safest cities to live in in America, according to a survey released Thursday.
Atlanta is the most dangerous.
Seattle ranked 52nd and Tacoma 70th, while three California cities made the list’s best showing: Huntington Beach, Glendale and Fremont, in that order.
Anchorage took 22nd place and Portland 66th.
“City Crime Rankings,” published by Morgan Quitno Press of Lawrence, Kan., details the status of crime in America’s largest 100 cities and 255 metropolitan areas.
Rounding out the five safest cities were Honolulu and Virginia Beach.
Spokane Police Chief Terry Mangan said taking 19th place in the survey didn’t surprise him, even though violent crime rates have risen considerably in the past few years here.
“When you look at other cities, Spokane is still a very nice place to live and raise a family,” Mangan said.
The chief said forming partnerships between the community and police is a priority with his department. Making the country’s safestcities list should encourage residents to get involved and help reduce crime even more, he said.
“We want to keep it that kind of a place to live,” Mangan said. “We should keep trying to take first (place).”
Atlanta was followed by St. Louis; Newark, N.J.; Little Rock, Ark., and Kansas City, Mo., as the country’s most dangerous cities.
The rankings were based on murder, rape, aggravated assault, robbery and property crime statistics. The data were compiled from 1993 FBI statistics.
“Americans worry so much about crime that it is important to somehow measure just the facts,” said Scott Morgan, president of Morgan Quitno, which also publishes three other annual reference books: “Crime State Rankings,” “Health Care State Rankings” and a general volume, “State Rankings.”
“Certainly every city and metro area has high crime areas and low crime areas, but our findings enable people to learn how their hometown as a whole compares with all the other cities,” Morgan said.
Seven cities - including Chicago, Houston and Detroit - weren’t given overall ratings because of incomplete information.
In the separate category of safest metropolitan areas, Wausau, Wis., received the top ranking out of 255 metro areas considered. Second place went to Eau Claire, Wis., followed by Altoona, Pa.; Appleton/ Oshkosh, Wis.; and Johnstown, Pa.
xxxx “Safesr cities.”