By Sarrah Peters, News Editor
SafeHome.org Communications Team recently announced that the City of Gadsden made its 2017 list of the Safest Cities in the United States and was ranked number 23 in Alabama.
According to its website, “Safe Home is an organization dedicated to helping people create safer living environments for their families. Whether that’s reading through one of our research reports, understanding why your city was ranked as one of the safest (or most dangerous) or just simply looking for a new home security system, our goal is to drive awareness through research, data analysis and education. The orginization’s experts spend countless hours pouring over data, obsessing over the details and figuring how to interpret it for the average individual.”
Gadsden was ranked right after Birmingham at number 22 and before Anniston at number 24. Gadsden’s safety score was 42.98.
Safe Home looks at several different factors when it determines a city’s safety score. The biggest factor is the FBI’s latest report of “how many and what types of crimes” occur each year in the city. Gadsden’s past crime trends are considered. If crime in an area goes down a higher safety score is given and vice-versa. Law enforcement numbers compared to population are also considered. census information such as “population density, population trends, unemployment rate, median income and education level are also analyzed.
According to Safe Home’s survey, Gadsden’s population is 36,148, although there was no data for the citizen to law enforcement ratio. The report states that 374 violent crimes and 2,724 property crimes in Gadsden in the past year. Although the violent crime trend went up 2.5 percent, the property crime trend went down 2.1 percent.
“We’re pleased to see Gadsden listed among the safest cities in Alabama,” said Gadsden Mayor Sherman Guyton. “All the citizens of Gadsden should be proud of the fine officers at the Gadsden police department, the deputies of the Etowah County Sheriff’s Office and our joint Drug Enforcement Unit. These men and women devote themselves to keeping us safe and to keeping dangerous people off the street. We’re proud to be able to support their tireless work every hour of every day. We know that Gadsden is a safe place to live, work and raise a family and are glad to be recognized nationally for this success.”