Smart Safety - 20205's Safest Cities in America

 With the U.S. experiencing over 340 mass shootings and over 26,000 motor vehicle deaths so far this year, the personal-finance company WalletHub today released its report on 2025's Safest Cities in America, as well as expert commentary.

To determine where Americans can feel most protected against life’s hazards, including nonphysical forms of danger, WalletHub compared more than 180 U.S. cities across 41 key metrics. The data set ranges from traffic fatalities per capita and assaults per capita to the unemployment rate and the percentage of the population that is uninsured.
 

Safest Cities in America		Least Safe Cities in America
1. Warwick, RI		173. Cleveland, OH
2. Overland Park, KS		174. Philadelphia, PA
3. Burlington, VT		175. San Bernardino, CA
4. Juneau, AK		176. Houston, TX
5. Yonkers, NY		177. Fort Lauderdale, FL
6. Casper, WY		178. Baltimore, MD
7. South Burlington, VT		179. Detroit, MI
8. Columbia, MD		180. Baton Rouge, LA
9. Lewiston, ME		181. Memphis, TN
10. Salem, OR		182. New Orleans, LA

Safest vs. Least Safe

• Virginia Beach, Virginia, has the fewest aggravated assault incidents (per 100,000 residents), which is 51.9 times fewer than in Memphis, Tennessee, the city with the most.
   
• Nampa, Idaho, has the fewest thefts (per 1,000 residents), which is 10.5 times fewer than in Oakland, California, the city with the most.
   
• Washington, D.C., has the most law-enforcement employees (per 100,000 residents), which is 5.2 times more than in Irvine, California, the city with the fewest.
   
• Lincoln, Nebraska, has among the fewest pedestrian fatalities (per 100,000 residents), which is 33.4 times fewer than in Jackson, Mississippi, the city with the most.

To read the full report and your city’s rank, please visit: 
https://wallethub.com/edu/safest-cities-in-america/41926

“When people think about safety in a city, their minds probably immediately go to things like the crime rate, auto fatality rate or risk of natural disasters. The safest cities in America protect residents from these threats of bodily harm and property damage, but on top of that, they also help secure people’s financial safety. Financial safety includes things like minimizing the risk of fraud and identity theft, keeping the population employed and insured, and combating homelessness.”
–
“Warwick, RI, is the safest city with the third-lowest number of aggravated assaults, the seventh-lowest number of thefts, and the 32nd-lowest number of murders per capita out of the 182 cities in our study. Warwick also provides good conditions for financial safety, as it has the fourth-lowest percentage of residents without health insurance, as well as the fourth-lowest percentage who are living in poverty. On top of that, the city has the 37th-fewest fraud complaints per capita.”

- Chip Lupo, WalletHub Analyst 
 

Expert Commentary
 
What are some of the top public safety issues this year?

“The rapid proliferation of evermore-sophisticated artificial intelligence greatly expanded offenders' predatory options. From social engineering to phishing to sextortion, AI is enhancing existing types of crimes and enabling the creation of entire new classes of it. Online predators can steal cryptocurrency, trick people into sending money to faked relatives, and access children. Now more than ever, people need to protect themselves and their children through education and target hardening.”
Jacinta M. Gau, Ph.D. – Professor, University of Central Florida
 
“We are experiencing a transformation in how criminals are using technology to invent new crimes and are creating new ways to commit traditional crimes. Successful mitigation necessitates the actions and collaboration of law enforcement personnel across all branches and jurisdictions. Cooperation and information sharing between agencies is key to enforcement and keeping up to date with new and emerging trends… On an economic level, the biggest concern is criminal activity that could erode trust in our financial markets. There are criminal groups who incorporate increasingly sophisticated financial activity in their criminal schemes. Examples include obtaining unreleased business press releases to place financial trades or placing short positions and then engaging in damaging activity against the company. On a personal level, there has been an increase among criminals engaging in various cyber extortion schemes, from sextortion (capturing and threatening to release nude images or video of a victim) to ransomware… Missing and exploited children continue to be a massive challenge globally.”
Michael Breslin – Director, Strategic Client Relations, Federal Law Enforcement, LexisNexis Special Services, Inc
 

What measures can police departments take to increase public trust? How important is it to have a police force that is representative of the local community?

“Police departments can increase public trust through transparent practices and open communication… Communication is vitally important in the aftermath of use-of-force incidents, including but not exclusively those involving deadly force. Police should regularly update the community and release as much information as they can as soon as they can. When they must withhold information due to ongoing investigations into the incidents or for other reasons, they should explain the need for nondisclosure. Representativeness matters. It is unrealistic to expect police to be a strict cross-section of the community, but agencies should be generally representative of their constituents for several reasons. Public trust is enhanced when police ‘look like’ the communities they serve. Victims may be better served when officers have a variety of backgrounds and skillsets, thus allowing the officer with the most relevant skills to help victims. Sensitive crimes like sexual assault should be handled by officers with the training and compassion necessary to comfort victims and interview them without retraumatizing them. Police themselves benefit from diversity within their own ranks. They get exposed to fellow officers who grew up differently, practice various religions and faiths, and experienced forms of discrimination or abuse. This educates them about other races, genders, and cultures, and it sensitizes them to the challenges those other races, genders, and cultures may go through.”
Jacinta M. Gau, Ph.D. – Professor, University of Central Florida
 
“Trust can be further strengthened and, in many cases, initiated between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve by increased transparency with local leaders, community residents, not-for-profit groups and the media. A deliberate, measured and transparent approach to the use of data in accordance with balancing the constitutional rights of the public is a key factor that can help increase trust between police and the community at large. If utilized correctly, data can be leveraged to improve relationships in demonstrating the proper use of resources, attention and can help drive a strategy of crime prevention and increased public safety measures that would otherwise go unserved causing negative and disparate impacts on communities whose trust and collaboration are required.”
Michael Breslin – Director, Strategic Client Relations, Federal Law Enforcement, LexisNexis Special Services, Inc


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• Best & Worst States for Health Care
• Best Places to Raise a Family