Nassau County Named Safest Community In America For Second Year

NASSAU COUNTY, NY — Nassau County was named the safest community in America by U.S. News & World Report for the second year in a row.

The detailed breakdown of community rankings by U.S. News was just recently made available, and Nassau placed in the top for public safety. It was part of U.S. News's Healthiest Communities, in which Nassau ranked 78 overall.

"Whether you're a mayor, county executive, governor or president, keeping residents safe is our No. 1 job," said Nassau County Executive Laura Curran. "Public safety is the core of our mission as a local government."

The data was compiled and created a score out of 100 points. And Nassau County got a perfect score. Nassau outperformed the rest of the country on all of the key metrics U.S. News was measuring.

Nassau spends $1,148 per capita on police and fire protection — much higher than the national median of $359. The percent of the population that are public safety professionals is double the national median. And the violent crime rate is 143.6 per 100,000 people, whereas the national average is 204.6 per 100,000.

"Over the past year since we got the first designation, major crime is down 10.5 percent," Curran said. "We are not letting our foot off the gas and we are not resting on our laurels. While crime has spiked in other parts of the country, Nassau County is safer than ever. This is thanks to the men and women that get it done for us — our first responders."

These are the top 10 safest communities in America, according to U.S. News & World Report:

1. Nassau County, New York
2. Rockland County, New York
3. Alexandria, Virginia
4. Westchester County, New York
5. Arlington County, Virginia
6. San Mateo County, California
7. Shelby County, Missouri
8. Bergen County, New Jersey
9. Sublette County, Wyoming
10. Butler County, Iowa

Curran credited Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder and his commitment to intelligence-led policing as the main reason Nassau received the designation two years in a row. Intelligence-led policing, Curran explained, uses data on arrests, criminal records, domestic incidents, gang activity and more to create analytics and patterns, and then allocate police resources to the areas that need it most.

Ryder boasted that Nassau continues to see declining crime rates, even as crime is spiking in other parts of the country. Major crime is down more than 7 percent so far this year compared to last year, he said.

"We're going to make sure we continue to work with our communities and drive our numbers in the right direction," said Ryder.