Wayland Is The Safest Place To Live in Massachusetts: Report

WAYLAND, MA - It’s another good year to live in Wayland. In fact, it's even better than last year, according to the results of a survey released on Monday.

SafeWise has once again named Wayland the safest town in the Commonwealth on its 2017 list of the 20 safest towns in Massachusetts. Last year, Wayland ranked second on the list, and it's the fourth year in a row the town has been included in the Top 20.

“This ranking shows the hard work and dedication of all public safety personnel in Wayland," Wayland Police Chief Robert Irving said in a statement, "and the tremendous partnership between the community and the police officers, firefighters and dispatchers that serve and protect the town on a daily basis. It is gratifying to see such a high ranking for consecutive years.

SafeWise reported that according to the most recent FBI Crime Report, the cities and towns on the Top-20 list are 86 percent safer than the nation as a whole. In 2015, the cities on this list reported fewer than four crimes per 1,000 people; nationally, nearly 29 crimes were reported for every 1,000 people.

SafeWise,"a community-focused security organization committed to increasing safety education, awareness, and preparedness," reviewed 2015 FBI Crime Report statistics, the most recent available, and population data to rank the municipalities. Cities with fewer than 8,000 residents and those that failed to submit a complete crime report to the FBI were not included.

After that,SafeWise narrowed down its list based on the number of reported violent crimes (aggravated assault, murder, rape, and robbery) and property crimes (burglary, arson, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft) in each city and calculated the likelihood of these crimes occurring out of 1,000 people in each city.

None of the cities or towns on the Top 20 list in Massachusetts had reported a murder in 2015, and four cities/towns—Weston, Boxford, Hopkinton, and Sharon—reported zero violent crime.

"These statistics are particularly impressive considering that on a national level, violent crime increased nearly 4 percent 2014 to 2015, and reports of murder and non-negligent manslaughter increased more than 10 percent," said SafeWise in its release.

Here is the Top-20 list as chosen by SafeWise:

1. Wayland
2. Weston
3. Boxford
4. Norfolk
5. Hopkinton
6. Clinton
7. Franklin
8. Sudbury
9. Norton
10. Duxbury
11. Georgetown
12. Sharon
13. Holliston
14. Bedford
15. Grafton
16. Lexington
17. Holden
18. Southborough
19. Norwell
20. Hamilton

Irving, in an interview with SafeWise, attributed “an excellent working relationship between officers and citizens” as one of the primary reasons Wayland is so safe, and mentioned the town's Coffee With a Cop program, as well as its Citizens Police Academy and involvement with the schools.

Photo via SafeWise