Crimes Stats: Michigan City Among Top 100 Safest In Nation

Rochester Hills has been ranked among the top 100 safest cities in the nation, based on its low crime rate and the number of property and violent crimes reported in the Oakland County city. The ranking, which was released earlier this week, is based on 2016 statistics provided by local law enforcement agencies to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The rankings were compiled by NeighborhoodScout, a web-based platform from Location Inc., which 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. The company's 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.

Rochester Hills was the only Michigan city on the list.

It had a crime index of 74 out of 100, with 100 being the safest. There were 62 violent crimes in the city in 2016, the most recent year that complete data was available. That’s good for a rate of 0.84 per 1,000 residents. There were no murders in Rochester Hills during 2016, but there were 10 rapes reported. Additionally, the statistics show there were nine robberies and 43 assaults.

NeighborhoodScout also noted that in Rochester Hills, a person as a 1-in-1,184 chance of becoming a victim of a violent crime. Those odds greatly increase for all of Michigan, where a person has a 1-in-218 chance at becoming a victim of a violent crime.

There were also 564 property crimes in Rochester Hills, a rate of 7.68 per 1,000 residents. Rochester Hills certainly is getting attention: In a separate report by the financial news website 24/7 Wall St., the city was ranked as the best city in Michigan to live.

The safest city in America, NeighborhoodScout says, is Ridgefield, Connecticut, with a crime index of 95. The city, which has just more than 25,000 people, saw no murders, rapes or robberies in 2016.

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 from the most recent final data available. For this 2018 report, the figures are based on 2016 statistics.

Patch reporter Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

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