Five North Texas Towns Among Safest In America: Analysis

A new analysis has ranked the 100 safest cities in America and five cities in North Texas made the list.

NeighborhoodScout, a web-based platform from Location, Inc., compared the safety of cities with at least 25,000 people based on the total number of property and violent crimes per 1,000 residents.
Their analysis, released on Monday, found that 37 percent of the nation’s safest cities reside in just two states: Massachusetts and Illinois, which had 19 and 18 cities on the list, respectively.

Colleyville was the safest city in Texas, with a crime index of 86 out of 100, with 100 being the safest.

Not only did Colleyville land among the nation's safest, but Keller, Flower Mound, Wylie and Little Elm also showed up on the list.

By the numbers, C0lleyville is safer than 86% percent of cities in America, NeighborhoodScout says. There were only six violent crimes in the city, a rate of 0.23 per 1,000 residents. There were zero murders in and one rape.

There were also 151 property crimes in Colleyville, a rate of 5.77 per 1,000 residents.

Keller, meanwhile, scored a crime index of 84, with zero murders and eight rapes. Chances of being a victim of a violent crime in Keller are one in 1,555.

Next up, Flower Moundlanded a crime index of 74, with zero murders and four rapes. According to NeighborhoodScout, only one in 2,229 is a victim of a violent crime.

Wylie, with a crime index of 69, logged zero murders and seven rapes. The chances of being a victim of a violent crime in Wylie are one in 954.

Finally, Little Elm scored 66 on the crime index, with zero murders and 12 rapes.

The safest city in America, NeighborhoodScout says, is Ridgefield, Connecticut, with a crime index of 95. The city, which has just over 25,000 people, saw no murders, rapes or robberies last year.

Andrew Schiller, CEO and founder of Location, Inc. and NeighborhoodScout, said bedroom communities within large metro areas and near major urban centers such as Boston, Chicago, and New York continue to make their list.

"These safe communities within the urban/suburban fabric of America's largest metropolitan areas often combine access to high-paying jobs in the urban center, decent schools, and a high quality of life,” Schiller said in a release. “This access to opportunity increases home values, with the result often being lower crime."
The safest cities rankings list differs from NeighborhoodScout's list of the most dangerous cities because it comprises both violent and property crimes. The group says the general public tends to equate a “dangerous" city with "violent" crime and a "safe" city with safety from both property crime and violence.

NeighborhoodScout says its analysis includes all reported crimes from all 18,000 local law enforcement agencies across the country.

View the full study and methodology at NeighborhoodScout.

Patch reporter Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

Photo credit: David McNew/Getty Images