Community Corner
Safest US Cities: Arlington Heights Ranked In Top 15
The village was one of 10 communities from Illinois that made a home safety and security group's list of the top 100 safest cities.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL — A home safety and security industry group ranked Arlington Heights in the top 15 on its list of the 100 safest cities in the United States. The village was rated 15th by the National Council for Home Safety and Security, a national trade association of licensed alarm installers, contractors and other groups. This year's ranking continues a trend for Arlington Heights of being recognized for its community safety.
The village was one of 10 Illinois communities to make the council's list, which evaluated 746 qualifying US cities. To come up with the list, the group used the 2016 FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics along with its own internal research. Rankings were based on data in three weighted categories: reported violent crimes (assault, murder, rape, robbery), property crimes (burglary, arson, larceny, motor vehicle theft) and number of police officers. Cities that didn't file a complete FBI crime report, as well as cities with fewer than 50,000 people, were eliminated. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest Arlington Heights news. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)
Arlington Heights placed the second-highest among Illinois cities on the list. It was behind Wheaton, which was at No. 6. The village also had plenty of familiar company on the bottom half of the list's top 20 cities, with nearby communities filling some of the rankings. These included Hoffman Estates (No. 16), Palatine (17) and Mount Prospect (20).
Find out what's happening in Arlington Heightsfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
RELATED: 10 Illinois Towns Make Top 100 Safest US Cities List
With a population of 76,241, Arlington Heights earned its spot with 42 violent crimes and 648 property crimes in 2016. For comparison, Thornton, Colorado, topped the list with a population of 133,188, 325 violent crimes and 3,373 property crimes.
Find out what's happening in Arlington Heightsfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Last year, Arlington Heights was ranked 10th among the safest large cities in Illinois with a population of more than 30,000 by personal finance website ValuePenguin. It earned the same spot on the list in 2015, too.
Go to the National Council for Home Safety and Security’s website for the complete list.
Patch Editor Lorraine Swanson contributed to this report.
Photo via Patch archive
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