Northwest Iowa — Most would agree that northwest Iowa is a safe place. Two Sioux County communities continue to make the top end of the list of Iowa’s Safest Cities by SafeWise, a safety and security research council. And two communities just outside of our primary coverage area are also on the list.
The city of Carroll came up two places on the list to displace last year’s number one and number two — Sioux Center and Orange City. Carroll is now number one on the list. Sioux Center dropped one spot, to number two. Orange City is still in the top ten but dropped six places to number eight.
Safewise says they have certain population thresholds, so smaller communities were not ranked. They say they rely on information that cities across the country report through the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program.
Other nearby cities on the list are Le Mars at number six, and Spencer at number 10.
SafeWise officials say their rankings are based on the number of reported violent crimes (aggravated assault, murder, rape, and robbery) in each city. If there was a tie, they say they also factored in the number of property crimes (burglary, arson, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft). SafeWise says they give precedence to violent crime because it typically results in physical harm or injury, whereas property crime usually has an economic impact. While both are concerning, people are usually more afraid of violent crime, which directly impacts their feeling of safety.
Here is the list of 2019’s top 20 safest Iowa cities, as reported by SafeWise:
1 Carroll
2 Sioux Center
3 Decorah
4 Clive
5 Norwalk
6 Le Mars
7 Eldridge
8 Orange City
9 Altoona
10 Spencer
11 Johnston
12 Bettendorf
13 Waukee
14 Fairfield
15 Mount Pleasant
16 Mason City
17 Creston
18 Marion
19 Denison
20 Ames
Check out the full report here: https://www.safewise.com/blog/
