Here Are The 25 Safest Cities In Calif., Home Security Firm Says

Late Sunday night, Stephen Paddock perched on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, just across the street from a concert where Jason Aldean was performing, and — armed with nearly two dozen firearms— rained bullets down upon about 22,000 people. The mass shooting — the deadliest in modern U.S. history — left at least 59 people dead and more than 500 others hurt.

As Patch has previously reported, violent crime in the United States went up for the second consecutive year in 2016, rising 3.4 percent, the latest FBI crime data show. There were an estimated 17,250 murders last year — an 8.6 percent increase from 2015 — and an estimated 1.2 million violent crimes. The five-year trend shows an increase of 2.6 percent from 2012, and the 10-year trend shows a decrease in violent crimes of 12.3 percent from 2007.

According to the home security company SafeWise, which ranks the 100 safest cities in the country every year using the latest FBI data, not a single city in Nevada made its 2017 list. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news from your California neighborhood. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app. Also, be sure to follow your local Patch on Facebook!)

New Jersey had the most cities on the list with 25, followed by Massachusetts with 15 and Pennsylvania with 12. To see the safest cities in your state, click here to get to the SafeWise home page and scroll down until you reach "Discover the Safest Cities By State." Then select your state.

In California, the city of Imperial in Imperial County made the national list.

"If you don’t see your city represented, it’s possible that they reported incomplete data to the [FBI Uniform Crime Reporting program] or did not report data at all," SafeWise said on its website.

It also said:

"We determine an appropriate threshold for each state and only report on cities with populations above this number," SafeWise said. That number is based on the state’s whole population and the number of cities to be included in the list.

Here are the top 25 safest cities in California, according to SafeWise:

• Imperial
• Rancho Santa Margarita
• Aliso Viejo
• Laguna Woods
• Canyon Lake
• Foster City
• Yorba Linda
• Moorpark
• Truckee
• Hillsborough
• Poway
• Los Altos
• Laguna Niguel
• Saratoga
• Danville
• Sierra Madre
• Walnut
• Calabasas
• Mission Viejo
• Moraga
• Orinda
• San Ramon
• Lake Forest
• Palos Verdes Estates
• San Clemente

Each city’s safety score is calculated based on information on violent crimes, including aggravated assault, forcible rape, murder and robbery, as well as property crimes, such as arson, burglary, larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft.

Here's the safety formula: (Violent Crimes/(Population/1,000)) + (Property Crimes/(Population/1,000))/2 = Safety Score.

"With these reports, we have put ourselves into our reader’s shoes in order to understand what makes us all feel safe or unsafe in a city. We feel that these rankings help get to the heart of the issue: what are the chances of crime happening to you or your loved ones?” SafeWise said.

By Daniel Hampton (Patch Staff)

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