Brick, N.J. Ranked Safest City in United States

LAWRENCE, Kansas – Brick, N.J., has been named America’s Safest City in the new edition of City Crime Rankings, an annual reference book of crime statistics and rankings. St. Louis was ranked the most dangerous.

The results of the 13th annual Safest City Award were released by Morgan Quitno Press.

“Brick Township always has fared well in our Safest City rankings. For the last six years of our study, it has ranked as one of the top five safest cities in the U.S.,” said Scott Morgan, president of Morgan Quitno Press. “It’s safety record is impressive, with no murders or rapes reported. Brick also boasts the lowest overall violent crime and robbery rates among cities across the nation.”

The Morgan Quitno Safest City Award is based on a city’s rate for six basic crime categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft. All cities with populations of more than 75,000 that reported crime data to the FBI for the six crime categories were included in the rankings. In this year’s survey, 371 cities were considered for the award. Final 2005 statistics, released by the FBI on Sept. 18 were used to determine the rankings.

Joining Brick at the top of the Safest City rankings are Amherst, N.Y., Mission Viejo, Calif., Newton, Mass., and Troy Mich.

“St. Louis last ranked as the Most Dangerous City in 2002,” said Morgan. “While the city clearly struggles with crime, there is some good news: St. Louis’ property crime rate has fallen 14 percent since 2001.”

The 25 most dangerous cities are:

  • St. Louis, MO
  • Detroit, MI
  • Flint, MI
  • Compton, CA
  • Camden, NJ
  • Birmingham, AL
  • Cleveland, OH
  • Oakland, CA
  • Youngstown, OH
  • Gary, IN
  • Richmond, CA
  • Baltimore, MD
  • Memphis, TN
  • Trenton, NJ
  • Richmond, VA
  • Kansas City, MO
  • Atlanta, GA
  • Cincinnati, OH
  • Washington, DC
  • North Charleston, SC
  • Reading, PA
  • Newark, NJ
  • Little Rock, AR
  • San Bernardino, CA
  • Orlando, FL

In addition to ranking the safety of cities, Morgan Quitno Press also examined crime in metropolitan areas. For the first time, Fond du Lac, Wisc., tops the rankings as America’s Safest Metropolitan Area. The Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, Mich., metropolitan division ranked as the most dangerous for the third consecutive year.

The findings of the 13th annual Safest City and Metropolitan Area Awards are featured in City Crime Rankings 13th Edition, an annual reference book from Morgan Quitno Press. The newly updated edition of this volume will be available November 9th.

For additional information, go to www.morganquitno.com.

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