Oakland named one of the most dangerous cities in America, San Jose one of the safest
OAKLAND, Calif. - The results of an annual report about the 10 safest and the 10 most dangerous big cities in America is out and two Bay Area cities are on the lists.
Oakland is the tenth most dangerous metro city in the country with a crime rate nearly four times higher than the national average, according to the report from SafeWise, an independent safety and security company.
Only cities with populations of 300,000 or higher were considered.
The results come from the company analyzing FBI crime and population data from 2017, the most recent year for which statistics are available. Cities were then ranked by the number of reported violent crimes, including assault, murder, rape, and robbery that year..
To be fair, SafeWise calculated the rate of crimes per 1,000 people in each city.
This is not the first time Oakland has made the dangerous cities list, but it’s important to note that last year the city of 425,000 people was ranked the eighth most dangerous big city in the nation.
The good news for Oakland: violent crime rates decreased between 2016 and 2017. Figures for 2018 are not yet available.
No other West Coast city is on the dangerous big cities list. St. Louis was ranked the most dangerous city in America while Detroit took second place, followed by Baltimore in third place.
But many West Coast cities made the safest metro cities list. San Jose was ranked number seven, while Anaheim came in fourth, followed by San Diego in fifth place.
Because San Jose saw a slight uptick in its violent and property crime rates, the Silicon Valley city moved two spots down the list this year, SafeWise noted that San Jose has a proactive approach to reducing crime and keeping residents safe.
The Strong Neighborhoods Initiative, developed nearly 20 year ago, is a program that empowers residents from 19 low-income and ethnically diverse neighborhoods to propose and prioritize improvement projects in their neighborhoods.
The city also continues to focus on neighborhood development and engagement with its ongoing Neighborhoods Commission, which focuses on neighborhood safety, transportation, and code enforcement.
In Southern California, the city of Anaheim nabbed a spot on the safest metro cities list.
SafeWise praised Anaheim for its City of Kindness initiative, which encourages residents to do simple acts of kindness with the hope that the act will have a positive impact on quality of life, schools, crime reduction and other issues. Anaheim was also held up as a model city because it had the fewest murders of any of the safest cities on the top 10 list.