By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
MONTGOMERY — For the third consecutive year, Montgomery Township has ranked among the top 100 safest cities in the United States for 2016, according to www.safewise.com.
Montgomery Township ranks 67 among the safest 100 American communities on Safewise’s list, which rates 20,000 townships across the country each year.
Mayor Patricia Graham was pleased with Safewise’s inclusion of Montgomery Township as one of the safest communities in the nation.
“Montgomery is not only one of the best towns for families in New Jersey, it is one of the safest cities in America,” Mayor Graham said. “As elected officials, it is gratifying to see that our commitment to public safety continues to yield excellent results.”
Mayor Graham and Deputy Mayor Ed Trzaska praised the Montgomery Township Police Department. Township Committee takes steps to hire the right cadets, make the right leadership promotions and ensures that the Police Department is appropriately equipped, Deputy Mayor Trzaska said.
Safewise, which is an independent consumer comparison website that helps consumers compare home security systems and providers, compiled the list by identifying communities with a population of more than 10,000 people. Montgomery has a population of 22,547 people.
The next step was to review crime data from those communities — known as the Uniform Crime Report — that is reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Uniform Crime Report statistics in New Jersey are collected from local police departments by the New Jersey State Police, which in turn provides the FBI with the data.
The Uniform Crime Report consists of reports of murder, robbery, rape, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft and arson. Murder, robbery, rape and aggravated assault are considered to be violent crimes, and the others — burglary, larceny-theft and arson — are deemed to be non-violent or property crimes.
According to www.safewise.com, “we reviewed the latest FBI crime report statistics (based on the Uniform Crime Report), comparing the number of reported violent crimes and property crimes in each city.”
“To compare small and large cities fairly, we calculated the chance of both types of crime happening per 1,000 people,” the website said.
Montgomery Township’s violent crime rate is 0.09 per 1,000, and the property crime rate is 5.14 per 1,000.
Safewise.com describes Montgomery Township as “one of New Jersey’s safest places to call home. “In order to preserve the peace in this popular community, police publicly track crime and offer extra services, such as vacation house checks. This hands-on approach to policing keeps crime at bay.”
