For the fourth year in a row, Centennial has been named the
safest city in Colorado by a national publishing and research
company.
The city ranked as the 38th safest U.S. city overall in a survey
by Congressional Quarterly Press. The firm recently acquired the
Kansas-based Morgan Quitno Press, which previously conducted the
annual city-by-city comparison of FBI crime data.
Centennial, population 103,000, has dropped from the 20th-safest
U.S. city in the survey of 397 municipalities with 75,000 people or
more.
In 2006, the city was named the 25th safest in the nation.
Centennial has held steady as the safest city in Colorado
despite fluctuating in the national rankings.
Centennial Mayor Randy Pye said he was proud of the ranking, and
acknowledged the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, Centennial’s law
enforcement provider, for the continued status.
“I am proud that Centennial has once again made the list as the
safest city in Colorado. It is an impressive honor and one that
would not be possible without the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office
as our law enforcement agency,” Pye said. “There is no better
measure of the quality of life for our citizens than this.”
The 15th annual “City Crime Rankings: Crime in Metropolitan
America” was based on per-capita rates for homicide, rape, robbery,
aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft. Each category is
weighed based on its seriousness, according to CQ Press.
Not every city that meets the population requirement is included
in the survey. Crime statistics for 16 cities were unavailable for
a number of reasons, ranging from general reporting difficulties
and computer issues to changes in reporting systems.
The study is not without its critics. The FBI, which supplied CQ
Press with its information, has questioned the survey’s
meaningfulness in an official statement. Additionally, The American
Society of Criminology calls it “an irresponsible misuse” of crime
data.
“If you take the survey, take the [FBI] Uniform Crime Report,
victimization reports, the variety of surveys and bring them all
together in one holistic approach. That’s certainly what I would
do,” Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson told The Citizen a
year ago.
“A lot of the cities are probably very close, within hundredths
of a percentage point apart. Even one homicide would shake the
numbers up a bit.”
Other Colorado cities and their rankings include Boulder, 61,
Westminster, 66, Arvada, 81, Fort Collins, 97, Thornton, 143,
Greeley, 160, Lakewood, 171, Aurora, 205, Colorado Springs, 214,
Pueblo, 235 and Denver, 257.
According to the CQ Press, the “safest” five cities in the
United States, in order, are Ramapo, N.Y.; Mission Viejo, Calif.;
O’Fallon, Mo.; Newton, Mass.; and Brick Township, N.J.
