Don’t let recent headlines fool you. Seriously, just don’t watch the news. Stay away from your television set and all that bad news regarding Sanford, North Carolina.
Sanford isn’t as terrible as all that. It was named North Carolina’s 31st safest city by SafeWise.com, besting those cities you thought might be safer — Fuquay-Varina (40th), Carrboro (36th), Aberdeen (42nd), and Mebane (50th). The Village of Pinehurst, site of this year’s U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open, is the safest city in the state.
SafeWise paired the most recent FBI Crime Report with its own independent examination to compile its list. To make the list, a city had to have a population of over 5,000 as of 2012 and needed to meet criteria regarding both violent and property crimes, according to FBI statistics from 2012. North Carolina’s League of Municipalities has about 522 members. According to the site:
We analyze the number of Violent Crimes, consisting of aggravated assault, forcible rape, murder, and robbery, as well as Property Crimes, consisting of arson, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. Then we calculated the chance of these crimes happening out of 1,000 in order to level the playing field for the different populations of each city.
Sanford’s statistics in 2012:
- Violent Crimes Per 1,000: 3.05
- Property Crimes Per 1,000: 7.18
Dear Billy, Thank you for this article. It’s timely as we have the debate with some as to whether the recent crime we have had us a neighborhood problem or a criminal individual problem. We are leaning toward a individual problem and are hoping that the start of the Safe Neighborhood Act will help us by putting the violent offenders away for a long time. We hope to move up the list as we revitalize and clean up the City. Thanks, Chet
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