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BRICK RANKED SAFEST CITY IN THE NATION
BRICK HITS TOP SPOT IN AMERICA AFTER SIX YEARS OF HIGH RANKINGS
By Catherine Snipe
It may not be on invitation to leave your doors wide open at night, but it's certainly something to help you sleep a bit sounder: The safest place in the U.S. to live is Brick Township, according to rankings released this week.
Morgan Quitno Press' 2005 rankings of cities with more than 75,000 residents put Brick as the number one safest city in America.
The survey looked at crime per 100,000 people. Brick Township had 55.9 incidents per 100,000.
"Brick Township always has fared well in our Safest City rankings. For the last six years of our study, it has ranked as one of the top five safest cities in the U.S.," said Scott Morgan, President of Morgan Quitno Press, in a prepared statement. "Its safety record is impressive, with no murders or rapes reported. Brick also boasts the lowest overall violent crime and robbery rates among cities across the nation." The Morgan Quitno Safest City Award is based on a city's rate for six basic crime categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft.
Mayor Joseph Scarpelli credited the township's expanded police force as part of the reason behind the ranking.
"With the support of the Township Council, we have expanded our Police Department from 83 officers when I was elected Mayor in 1994 to 126 officers today," he said.
The private research and publishing company specializes in city and state reference books. The rankings are based on FBI crime statistics.
Other New Jersey cities on the safest list are Dover Township, ranking number 14, and Edison at number 23.
The most dangerous cities in the nation list bumps Camden from the number one slot down to number five. New Jersey also "boasts" several other of the nation's most dangerous cities: Trenton in the 14th spot and Newark at number 22. The most dangerous city in America is St. Louis.
In this year's survey, 371 cities were for the award. The second safest city is Amherst, N.Y. It had 70 incidents per 100,000.
The most dangerous, St. Louis, had 2,405.5 violent crime incidents per 100,000, according to the rankings.
Final 2005 statistics, released by the FBI on September 18, 2006, were used to determine the rankings.
The survey analyzed FBI statistics for 49 states and the District of Columbia. Illinois was left out because the state's rape case data does not match the FBI's.
Nationally, Brick notched number five in 2004 on the Lawrence, Kansas-based publisher's golden list, behind Newton, Massachusetts.
While not as large as some townships on the list, Brick edged close to the 75,000 population cutoff, as the town has an estimated population of 80,000.
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