How Safe Is Cleveland Heights? Security Firm Ranks Ohio Cities

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, OH — Cleveland Heights is the 89th safest city in Ohio, according to Safewise, a security firm that ranked the towns based off FBI crime data. Nearby University Heights landed at 81, while East Cleveland was ranked 94.

Dover, Chester Township and Bay Village top the list of the safest communities in Ohio. Dover, which had 0.47 violent crimes per 1,000 people in 2015, sits at No. 24 on the company's list of the safest cities across the nation. The community was the 10th safest community in Ohio in 2014.

Much of the nation saw an uptick in violent crime in the FBI's 2016 crime data report, which was released early last week. Cleveland Heights was no exception. There were 145 violent crimes in the city in 2016, a significant increase versus 2015. (To stay up to date on these stories, subscribe to the Patch Cleveland Heights newsletter. As news breaks and the story develops, you will be the first to receive updates from Patch.)

“As we’ve seen nationally, there has been an uptick in crime from 2015 to 2016,” Cleveland Heights Police Chief Annette Mecklenburg told Patch when the data was first released. “We have seen decreases in some categories while facing increases in others. The CHPD has taken many steps to help prevent crimes from happening and has focused on discouraging juveniles from committing crimes.”

Safewise released its safest cities report on Monday, noting that the overall crime rate of the Buckeye State decreased from 2014 to 2015, and is the 24th safest state in the nation. The communities that made the Top 20 list have crime rates below the state and national averages. People living in the communities on the Top 20 list had less than one in a 1,000 chance of experiencing a violent crime in 2015—almost 75% less than the national average.

Read more about the Safewise rankings by clicking here.

To compile the data, Safewise eliminated cities with less than 5,000 residents and cities that did not submit a complete crime report to the FBI. Then the group narrowed it down to the number of reported violent and property crimes and calculated the likelihood of these crimes occurring out of 1,000 people.

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