City Crime Rankings Once Again Names Amherst, New York America’s Safest City

Morgan Quitno Awards ^ | 11-25-2003 | Morgan Quitno

[Cagey]

Detroit, Michigan Returns as Most Dangerous

Lawrence, KS—Amherst, New York is on a winning streak. For the fourth consecutive year, the citizens of this upstate New York community can boast that they live in America’s Safest City. The honor will be announced in the new edition of City Crime Rankings, an annual reference book of crime statistics and rankings slated for publication in early December. The results of the tenth annual Safest City Award, which compares crime in 350 cities, were announced today by Morgan Quitno Press, a Lawrence, Kansas-based publishing and research company. At the opposite end of the crime scale, Detroit, Michigan returns to the spotlight as the nation’s most dangerous city.

“Amherst’s record speaks for itself, “said Scott Morgan, President of Morgan Quitno Press. With crime rates that are among the lowest in the nation, it is no wonder that this community shines year after year in our annual competition.”

The Morgan Quitno Safest City Award is based on a city’s rate for six basic crime categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft. All cities of 75,000+ populations that reported crime data to the FBI for the six crime categories were included in the rankings. Final 2002 statistics, released by the FBI on October 27, 2003, were used to determine the rankings.

Joining Amherst at the top of the Safest City rankings were Brick Township, NJ; Mission Viejo, CA; Simi Valley, CA and Cary, NC.

At the opposite end of the Morgan Quitno crime scale, Detroit, Michigan returns as the nation’s most dangerous city. The Motor City anchored the crime rankings in 1999, 2000 and 2001 before it was ousted last year by St. Louis, Missouri. Detroit is joined at the bottom of the crime rankings by (in ascending order) St. Louis, MO; Atlanta, GA; Camden, NJ and Washington, DC.

In addition to ranking the safety of cities, Morgan Quitno Press also examined crime in metropolitan areas. In those rankings, Bangor, ME was this year’s Safest Metropolitan Area. The Pine Bluff, AR metropolitan area ranked as the most dangerous.

The findings of the tenth annual Safest City and Metropolitan Area Awards are announced in City Crime Rankings 10th Edition, an annual reference book from Morgan Quitno Press. The newly updated edition of this volume will be available December 8th. The Safest City and Metropolitan Area rankings are one of five Morgan Quitno Awards announced annually by the publishing company. These other annual announcements designate the nation’s Most Livable State (a state quality of life survey); the Healthiest State (a survey of state health care); the Safest and Most Dangerous States (a state crime survey) and the Smartest State (a state education survey).

Additional information regarding the results of the tenth annual Safest City and Metropolitan Area Awards is available from Morgan Quitno Press via the Internet at www.morganquitno.com. The website provides methodology and rankings of the top and bottom 25 cities. A full report featuring information for all 350 cities is available online for $3.00.

[kitkat]

***Since WHEN do you need to "know" an area in order to talk about the GENERAL subject of SAFETY?***

If you're talking about the "general subject of safety," then talk about the GENERAL subject. But you're talking about an area you know nothing about. The people of Amherst do NOT have to live behind bars for protection. Amherst has an excellent police force and NO ONE puts up with hooligans in Amherst. It's a bedroom community of 140,000 people who moved there to find a good place to live. I have a VERY modest income, and our taxes are high. But I do without a lot to live in a peaceful community.

[Tatze]

Oops. Let me add another: Roswell, GA (#17 safest) is very Republican.

[Maelstrom]

My experience in the area is that everyone watches out for their neighbors.

I'll be up there next weekend.

[Puppage]

But you're talking about an area you know nothing about.

That has NOTHING to do with it. IF, as in this article, the general subjetc of safety is with regard to a city/town, etc. one need not know about the area.Or, for ANY subject discussed on FR. If that were the case, NO ONE would comment on ANYTHING.

Amherst has an excellent police force

Oh, I see. So, the police will save you, is that it? I guess you don't own a fire extinquisher then, seeing as the fire dept will save you, right?

BTW...it's the Statue of LIBERTY,not the Statue of Safety.

[Swanks]

Bump for Cary, NC. We dropped a spot from #4 to #5. Must have been the Jewelry store heist last summer. But, we got rid of our Lib Mayor and council in the last election - so I'll take the trade-off.

[dakine]

WE're Number 1!..We're number 1! ... a Detroit sports fan has to be HAPPY about something!!

[Cagey]

Camden, NJ (#4 on the Unsafest List), is run by Democrats so crooked they have to be screwed into the ground when they die.

[Puppage]

Amherst has an excellent police force

N. Korea has an excellent police force, too. What's your point?

[Puppage]

LOL!!!

[general_re]

No, but the street separating Amherst from Buffalo is as inviolate as the former Berlin Wall and separates differences almost as stark.

Hmmm, I must have missed the barbed wire strung up along Kenmore Ave. ;)

[rochester_veteran]

> what matters most, a good police department that does more
> than sit in parked cars being revenue agents.

That's been my observation of Amherst as well. You have a very visible police force that obviously is doing their job. Both of my sons played Pop Warner Football (Chili Lions) and the Amherst Broncos are our league, so we've traveled to Amherst a few times for games. Amherst is a nice place with alot of things to do and it even boasts a good sized wild turkey population!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

rochester_veteran

[rintense]

Isn't Amherst where a ton of NYC cops and firemen live?

[BluH2o]

The 25 most dangerous cities listed all have one thing in common ... that's right, they all have a MLK Boulevard, Drive or street ... guaranteed.

[Cagey]

Isn't Amherst where a ton of NYC cops and firemen live?

If they do, they have one heck of a commute. It's about a six hour drive from Amherst to NYC. You may be thinking of Lindenhurst, which is on Long Island and less than an hour from the city.

[BluH2o]

Isn't Amherst where a ton of NYC cops and firemen live?

I know that's true of Simi Valley, CA.

[Nov3]

Memphis TN is number 11! Unfortunately it is the wrong list.

[webstersII]

One that didn't get into the survey is Kennesaw, Georgia.

The law in Kennesaw is that every head of household is required to own a firearm.

It's a really peaceful place. Not much crime to speak of, no murders, home invasions are almost unheard of. Folks are very polite, too.

It's close to Atlanta, so maybe it didn't make the cut because of that.

[Bonneville]

"N. Korea has an excellent police force, too. What's your point?"

Its DIFFERENT standards of excellence obviously! Not all police are agents of "The State" against the citizenry...some are actually part of, and care for, their community.

[general_re]

Can you get a carry permit in Amherst?

Dude, just slow down and chill out. You've never been there, obviously, so let's not get maudlin.

First off, pistol permits in New York are issued by county, not by cities/towns/villages. Yes, you can get a carry permit in Erie County, where Amherst is - I personally know two people who had carry permits in Erie County, and neither of them had to do anything particularly exceptional to get one. There's a very nice skeet-shooting range on Maple Road in Amherst, if you're into that kind of thing, but you should be aware that outside of that, it's illegal to discharge firearms within the town limits, except in defense of your person or property - there are very few open spaces where you can safely do so in the first place, so it's not a matter of "gun-grabbing" either. Happy now? ;)

[T. P. Pole]

Isn't Amherst where a ton of NYC cops and firemen live? I know that's true of Simi Valley, CA. And you thought the Amherst 5 hour commute was a bitch.