River Vale Safest City In Garden State For Second Year In A Row

Graphic: National Council for Home Safety and Security

The National Council for Home Safety and Security has named the Township of River Vale the safest city in New Jersey for the second year in a row.

The township topped Warren Township, Washington Township (Morris County), Ringwood, and Tenafly.

The organization cited the following township statistics in its ranking:
• Total crimes: 16
• Violent crimes: 1
• Property crimes: 15
• Crime rate per 1,000: 0.002
• Violent crimes per 1,000: 0.097
• Property crimes per 1,000: 1.461

To identify the safest cities in New Jersey, The National Council for Home Safety and Security reviewed the most recent FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics. A total of 7,639 cities were factored into this ranking, with populations ranging from 7,639 to 4,007,147.

It then eliminated any cities that failed to submit a complete crime report to the FBI and removed cities with populations under 10,000.

Overall, data from 8,793 law enforcement agencies that represented more 193 million of the U.S. population helped the organization draw insights between the size of the police force and incidence of crime.

There are two broad classifications of crimes: violent crimes and non-violent crimes. According to the FBI, violent crime is composed of four offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Violent crimes are defined in the UCR Program as those offenses that involve force or threat of force.

Property crime includes the offenses of burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. The object of the theft-type offenses is the taking of money or property, but there is no force or threat of force against the victims.

The organization computed the total number of crimes reported by each city by adding violent crimes and property crimes. It then rated them using the population of the city and created a crime rate as the number of crimes per 1,000 population.

It performed other statistical methods around the idea that the smaller the police adequacy statistic is, the safer the city is.

River Vale’s score is in sharp contrast to state and national averages.

Originally a colony settled by English, Dutch, and Swedes, New Jersey was seized by England in the mid-17th century. It played a pivotal role in the Industrial Revolution, which completely transformed the United States.

New Jersey is home to a population of around 8.7 million (ranked 11th in the nation) with state square miles ranked 47th— making New Jersey the most densely populated state in the country.

Industry and economy are often “lost” in some perceptions as being part of the greater New York area, the National Council for Home Safety and Security said, but New Jersey’s individual wealth generation is the second highest in the U.S.

Key wealth generators include financial services, telecommunications, chemicals and agriculture.

Income levels in New Jersey are typically considerably higher than national averages. Household average income at $80,000 is approximately a third higher, and at $40,000 there is a similar margin for per capita income.

New Jersey benefits from encouraging crime statistics, though inevitably there will be variations by localities, the National Council for Home Safety and Security said.

These statistics show New Jersey is the third safest state for property crime. It has a violent crime rate less than half the national average, with 1.56 crimes per 1,000 against the national average of 3.47.

Compared to national averages, property crime levels are also very low, at a ratio of 0.34 based upon 13.79 crimes per 1,000 which compares to the national average of 40.43.

You can read the full study here.