Community Corner
Safest US Cities: Palatine Ranked In Top 20
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.
PALATINE, IL — A home safety and security industry group ranked Palatine in the top 20 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 Palatine 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 Palatine news. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)
Palatine placed the fourth-highest among Illinois cities on the list. It was behind Wheaton (No. 6), Arlington Heights (15) and Hoffman Estates (16). In fact, the village had plenty of familiar company on the bottom half of the list's top 20 cities, with nearby communities filling some of the rankings. Along with Arlington Heights and Hoffman Estates, Mount Prospect made the list at No. 20.
Find out what's happening in Palatinefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
RELATED: 10 Illinois Towns Make Top 100 Safest US Cities List
With a population of 69,583, Arlington Heights earned its spot with 36 violent crimes and 603 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 Palatinefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Last year, Palatine was ranked 59th among the safest US cities with a population of 25,000 by website NeighborhoodScout.
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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