A Bay Area city landed on the wrong end of analysis ranking the safest – and most dangerous – towns in the U.S.
Emeryville was named the most dangerous small town in the U.S. by the safety and home security website "SafeWise," which analyzed FBI crime report data and population information from 2019, the most recent year complete data was available.
The outlet found that the East Bay city has more crime per capital than any other town in the U.S.
The city averages 211.9 property crimes per 1,000 residents, a number SafeWise called "staggering" as it's 10 times higher than the U.S.
property crime rate. In addition, nearly one in 109 Emeryville residents are a victim of motor vehicle theft, while the probability is "slightly higher" that residents are victims of robbery.
Larceny-theft accounts for 92% of all property crime in the city.
The rest of the list of most crime-ridden U.S. small towns is as follows.
1. Emeryville, CA (highest property crime rate in the US)
2. Sauk Village, IL (highest violent crime rate in the US)
3. Glendale, CO
4. Florida City, FL
5. Ocean City, MD
Lewisboro Town, New York was named the safest small town in the country.
Small towns were defined as cities with populations between 5,000 and 15,000 residents.
In response to this story, Chadrick Smalley, Economic Development and Housing Manager for the City of Emeryville, told KCBS Radio there are "serious shortcomings" to the study.
Smalley said that the FBI data is flawed because it does not account for the massive number of visitors which come to the city on a daily basis. "Emeryville is home to 21,000 jobs, and over 10,000 visitors to retail and hotels. The residential population is approximately 12,000. Comparisons to other cities in this population size range are inappropriate, because very few of them experience the sheer volume of daytime population that Emeryville has," he said.
He also cited that 21,000 people come to work in Emeryville every day because "it is a safe place for employees to come to work, with a rich culture of art and innovation driving world-changing discoveries." Smalley added that businesses are "routinely courted by other states and nations but they choose to be in Emeryville."
"So who is correct? A blog designed to sell security systems? Or 1,200 founders and CEOs in biotechnology, robotics, information security, synthetic biology, retail, restaurants, movie production, on and on…?" he continued.
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