Memorial Villages Are Among 10 Safest Places In Texas: Survey

HOUSTON, TX — A Houston-area community is among the 10 safest and crime-free places in Texas, according to a list compiled by a home safety and security website. The Memorial Villages, a group of six independent suburban cities, were collectively the ninth safest community in the state, as rated this week by the National Council for Home Safety and Security.

Alarms.org, the council's website, compiled a list of the 50 safest cities in Texas, scouring through the most recent FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics along with the council's own population data and internal research.

Researchers eliminated any cities that failed to submit a complete crime report to the FBI, and they removed places with populations under 5,000 from the list.

The Memorial Villages, in western Harris County, include the cities of Spring Valley Village, Piney Point Village, Bunker Hill Village, Hedwig Village, Hilshire Village and Hunters Creek Village.

All six are served by the Village Fire Department, according to a Memorial Villages website. The Memorial Villages Police Department serves the villages of Bunker Hill, Piney Point and Hunters Creek. The others are served independently.

Alarms.org rated the city of Kermit, in the western part of the state, as the safest in Texas. It experienced just two violent crimes and 18 property crimes last year.

All of the Texas cities in the Alarms.org survey were ranked based on the number of reported violent crimes (aggravated assault, murder, rape and robbery) and property crimes (burglary, arson, larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft) per 100,000 people, as shown in the FBI Uniform Crime Report.

These variables were then weighted, with violent crimes accounting for 70 percent of the total (due to their severity) and property crimes accounting for 30 percent. Finally, the decimal point was moved over a few spots to show rates per 1,000 people.

To check out the Alarms.org report, click here.

(Patch Editor Tony Cantu contributed to this story.)

Logo courtesy of the National Council for Home Safety and Security