The National Council for Home Safety and Security is happy to announce their ranking of the Safest Cities in Indiana for 2018. The top ten cities are:
- 1. Zionsville
- 2. St. John
- 3. Carmel
- 4. Fishers
- 5. Dyer
- 6. West Lafayette
- 7. Westfield
- 8. Crown Point
- 9. Brownsburg
- 10. Jasper
Indianapolis came up last on the list, at no. 58. Salem wasn’t on the list at all.
Other rankings:
18 – Bedford
20 – Jeffersonville
25 – Bloomington
33 – Seymour
35 – Columbus
54 – Evansville
55 – Clarksville
To compile the list, the group reviewed the most recent FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics in addition to its own population data and research. Cities that did not submit a complete crime report to the FBI and cities with populations of less than 10,000 people were not included.
The cities 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 1,000 people.
These variables were then weighted, with violent crimes assigned a value 1.5 times (due to their severity) that of property crimes.
Indiana’s figures of 6.66 violent crimes per 1,000 inhabitants and 37.68 property crimes per 1,000 are near the average for the U.S. as a whole. The Midwestern state won’t be featured in any “safest states” lists, but isn’t one of the most dangerous in any respect, either.
The Hoosier State’s safest community is Zionsville, a small, affluent suburb of Indianapolis. The town of 26,877 reported only 31 violent crimes and 108 property crimes.
Next is St. John (#2), a small town in the northwestern part of the state that posted just 4 violent crimes (the lowest figure for any community in Indiana with a population over 10,000) resulting in an average of .24 violent crimes per 1,000 occupants.
Carmel (#3 on the list) and Fishers (#4) are much larger communities of around 90,000 with very similar crime statistics. Each reported just 25 violent crimes, while Carmel’s rate of 8.86 property crimes per 1,000 slightly bests Fishers’ 10.32. Dyer (#5) is a small town of 15,983 bordering St. John 9 (#2) with comparably low crime rates.
