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How Safe Is Your South Florida Town?
Bottom Line: South Florida has a lot going for it. That much we know. Historically, for all of the good, there has been a bit of a tradeoff. Crime. With high population density and ease of access to even our smallest communities from our largest ones, combating crime has been a challenge. A decade ago, Florida ranked in the low 30’s in crime rate. However, we’ve been trending in the right direction for 13 consecutive years according to the state’s annual Uniform Crime Report. All of that progress has led to Florida clawing up to 25th in overall crime rate – or right in line with the national average. That’s also leading to many of our communities popping up as being among the safest in the country.
MoneyGeek just wrapped up an analysis of the “Safest Small Cities and Towns In America” which measured crime through the rate of property and violent crime and the cost of crime per capita. Florida doesn’t have a community in the top ten, however sitting just outside at #12 is Parkland – which is shown to easily be the safest small city in Florida. The next Florida city doesn’t appear until #129 – where Cooper City is shown to be the 2nd safest city in Florida. As for the rest of the top ten safest cities in Florida...Miami Lakes (147 nationally), Doral (165), Coconut Creek (#171), Dunedin (178), Weston (185), Margate (190), Winter Springs (220), St. Cloud (254).
Notably the top five safest small cities in Florida are all in Southeast Florida – along with seven of the top eight. In total there were 952 small cities across the US which were measured for the study. There is one South Florida city that’s nearly the least safe in the country. Checking in at #945 is Rivera Beach. To give you an idea of the difference of the impact of crime in Florida’s safest small city – Parkland compared to the least safe in Rivera Beach... The annual cost of crime per capita in Parkland is $62. In Rivera Beach it’s $6,334 – or 102 times worse.