MAP: How Dangerous is Your Town?

Patch has ranked the safest and most dangerous towns in the state and here we break down the numbers for each metric in our methodology.

Using the interactive map above, find statistics and the point totals for each of four factors, explained in more detail below. Those four point totals are added together to calculate each town’s Danger Points, with a higher score indicating higher levels of danger.

Methodology

Crime Index
The Crime Index (number of crimes per 1,000 persons) includes the number of recorded murders, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, larcenies, auto thefts and arsons. The figures are compiled town-by-town by the Uniform Crime Reporting Program, part of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection.

Crime Density
In order to give crime statistics more weight in the final tally, we also included Crime Density, calculated as the number of crimes per 100 persons per square mile.

Bike/Walk Safety
Bike Walk Connecticut ranked each town along five factors: online surveys of how bike and pedestrian friendly local residents think their towns are; municipal leadership and engagement efforts, including the creation of local bicycle and pedestrian master plans; whether local task forces or advisory groups have been established; whether a “complete streets” policy has been enacted; and related public outreach efforts.

The organization gave each town a score between 0-100, with a higher score indicating a safer town for cyclists and pedestrians. The Bike/Walk Points are the inverse score (lower is safer).

Years of Potential Life Lost
The Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL) index, as used by the state Department of Public Health, measures premature mortality by the aggregate number of potential years that would have been lived if those persons made it to age 75, the U.S. average.

The Adjusted YPLL (used for calculating YPLL Points) weighs younger deaths more heavily to adjust for the higher number of elderly deaths, as well as taking into account population to provide for a better town-by-town comparison.