Report: Ridgefield Is the Safest Community in Connecticut

You and your property are safer in Ridgefield than anywhere else in the state — at least in 2012 and among the 90 cities and towns in Connecticut ranked by the ValuePenguin website.

“Property crimes are 88 times more prevalent than violent crime, which is almost nonexistent in” Ridgefield, the website reported.

(The site used crime data from 2012, which is now a bit out of date, since the FBI recently released local crime data for 2013.)

The safest towns in the state were largely in Fairfield County, the site reported. Easton was the second-most safe town, according to the site, followed by Darien, Wilton, Redding and Weston, in that order.

ValuePenguin says the least safe communities in the state, in order: New Haven, Hartford, New London, and Bridgeport. Danbury ranked 34th, and it was above the state average on the list.

For some cities and towns, the website calculated the number of citizens per police officer (the higher the number, the fewer police there are in proportion to the population). For Ridgefield, that number is 543; for Easton, 500; and for Darien, 368; Wilton, 383; Redding, 429; Danbury, 547; .

ValuePenguin describes itself as a website that conducts research, largely on consumer topics, to help people make decisions about automobile insurance, health insurance, credit cards and similar products and services.

The website took 2012 FBI crime statistics (although the FBI recently released 2013 statistics), then weighted violent crimes per capita at 10 percent of the total score it gave to each community, with property crimes at 90 percent. (Violent crimes are usually less than 10 percent of all crime, but, the website said, “we figured that the violent crime data points are more relevant when calculating the relative safety of these cities.”)

ValuePenguin says it calculated the ratio of police officers to population by looking at police officer information on city-data.com. The FBI recently released 2013 data on police officers compared with population.

ValuePenguin also says it took data from all communities participating in the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting program. Data from only 90 of Connecticut’s cities and towns were presented by the website. The most rural towns, it appears, were not listed, perhaps because they don’t have their own police departments.

For the full list of 90 cities and towns, see the ValuePenguin website, which has communities listed both by rank and alphabetically.

Update: FBI crime statistics for Ridgefield, 2012 and 2013

Here’s what the FBI Uniform Crime Report program says about crimes committed in town in 2012 and 2013:

In 2012

Violent Crime: 1

Property crime in 2012: 88 total, comprised of 10 burglaries, 77 larcenies/thefts, 1 motor vehicle theft and 1 case of arson

In 2013

Violent Crime: 0

Property Crime: 76 total, comprised of 7 burglaries, 69 larcenies/thefts, no motor vehicle thefts and no cases of arson.

Police officers and population

In 2012, according to the FBI, there were 46 Police Department employees in town, 40 of them uniformed officers, and a town population of 24,952.

In 2013, according to the FBI, there were 47 Police Department employees in town, 42 of them uniformed officers, and a town population of 25,168.