SafeWise releases fifth annual ranking of the safest communities in the state.
While Colorado as a whole came in slightly above the national average for violent and property crime, several of our cities ranked very low on the violent crime rate according to SafeWise.com. This year's rank saw Lamar topping the list with a very low violent crime rate of just 0.13 per 1,000 people and had no aggravated assault, arson, murder, rape, or vehicle theft reports. Lamar was followed by Johnstown, Windsor, and Aspen, respectively.
Northern Colorado fared well with two cities in the top five: Johnstown at No. 2 and Windsor at No. 3.
The top-ranking city in the metro area was Cherry Hills Village coming in at No. 5. Cherry Hills had a violent crime rate of 0.30 per 1,000 residents and the lowest property crime rate of 3.74 per 1,000 people. Monument was the highest ranking city near the Colorado Springs area, ranking No. 6.
Castle Rock (No. 13), Littleton (No. 14), Golden (No. 16), and Broomfield (No. 19) all came in the top 20.
According to SafeWise, 85 percent of the top 20 safest cities had no reported murders last year. In addition, the majority of the cities are on the list for the second year in a row. Data for the report was pulled from FBI crime date and combined with the population of a city, which meant that some cities were too small to be included in the survey.
SafeWise also measured what crimes the citizens of Colorado were worried about, and digital security was on par with property crime as the most concerning issue.
"Citizens in Colorado are also worried about digital security—ranking it high enough to tie with property crime as the most concerning safety issue on our State of Safety report. Of those surveyed, 31% said they had experienced a digital security crime over the past year, compared to 21% who experienced property crime and 6% who experienced violent crime," says SafeWise.
You can check out the report and see where your city falls on the safety scale at SafeWise.com.
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