O’Fallon again ranked as one of America’s safest cities

The city of O’Fallon, Mo., is once again ranked among the Safest Cites in America, as determined by CQ Press, which announced the publication of City Crime Rankings 2009-10, its annual collection of data comparing crime numbers, rates and trends throughout the country.

Of the 393 cities that were studied, O’Fallon ranked 14th safest of Missouri cities that were surveyed, as well as at the top of the safe list for Midwestern cities. Among the Midwestern cities, Lee’s Summit, ranked 30th, was the only other Missouri city in the Top 100.

“This professional ranking is good news to us,” said O’Fallon’s Mayor, Bill Hennessy in a press release. “We have one of the country’s finest Police Departments, and people rightly feel safe living and working in our city. These rankings affirm what our residents already know, that O’Fallon is a tremendous place in which to live and raise a family.

“Last year, O’Fallon was rated third safest city in the nation, so our ranking has been affected by a couple of high-profile incidents in the past year,” Hennessy said. “But we are proud that we continue to be listed among the nation’s safest cities, and the men and women of this department are committed to ensuring that this city remains one of America’s safest.”

To prepare City Crime Rankings 2009-10, which provides 90 tables of information, the crime rate rankings of cities of at least 75,000 residents were calculated using six categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and motor vehicle theft, as reported to the FBI in calendar year 2008. The most recent survey considered statistics released by the Uniform Crime Reporting Program of the FBI in September 2009.

More information about the methodology can be found at os.cqpress.com/citycrime/2009/CityCrime2009.html.

City Crime Rankings is one of five annual reference books publish by CQ Press to analyze and rank states and cities in the categories of crime, health care, education, social, and economic conditions. www.cqpress.com.