Cedar Park And Leander Make List Of 'Safest Places' In Texas

CEDAR PARK, TX -- Both Leander and Cedar Park have made a list of the nation's safest cities, according to a new tabulation.

The findings by valuepenguin rank Cedar Park as the fifth-safest place in Texas among large cities with more than 50,000 population. Leander also ranked high on the list, earning the 28th slot overall.

To rank cities, data was culled from 2014 FBI crime statistics.

"Not every town participates in this report and we also excluded towns with fewer than 5,000 residents because towns with small populations are more sensitive to crime score fluctuations for fewer crimes committed," the study's authors wrote. "The raw data report included property crimes (burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson), and violent crimes (murder/manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) from all law enforcement agencies that chose to partake in the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting program."

The data were based on crime rates per 1oo,ooo population. Once studied, the data was aggregated with a "crime scrore" by weighting violent crime rate at 80 percent and property crime at 20 percent.

"Though property crime is more prevalent, we figured that violent crime is more concerning to town residents," the study's authors wrote. "Then we adjusted the crime score for population size, giving more slack to larger cities. Finally, we ranked the cities based on their crime scores.

To see the full findings, click here.