Morris County Towns Shine for Lack of Crime, Rankings Show

By and large, Morris County is a very safe place to live.

According to consumer resource site valuepenguin.com, which ranked the level of crime in 474 New Jersey towns, Morris County fared well, with just two of its 39 municipalities falling below the Garden State average.

Leading the county was Chatham, which ranked number six overall, followed by Washington Township at number 14 overall. Parsippany fared quite well, even at number 108 overall, and was named the safest large city – town with a population above 45,000 – in the entire state.

The two towns that fell below the average may come as a surprise, however. They were Netcong, ranked number 323 with a crime score of 342 (state average was 325), and the county seat, Morristown, which was far down the list at number 426, notching a score of 660. The lower the score, the better.

Topping the state for safest town was New Hanover Township, followed by Harrington Park, and Haworth. On the other side, the most dangerous cities lined the shore, with Wildwood, Atlantic City, Asbury Park, and Avalon rounding out the top four, respectively.

Chatham was also sixth on the list of small towns (population under 20,000), and Randolph was fifth on the list of midsize cities (populations between 20,000 and 45,000) and 58th overall. No Morris County towns made the top five list of most dangerous cities in any of the three categories.

The site used FBI crime statistics from 2013 to compile its list and based it on per capita.

See the full rankings here.