SYLACAUGA, Ala. – A recent study has ranked the top 50 safest cities in the Yellowhammer state.
To identify the safest cities, the publsihers, Alarm.com, reviewed the most recent FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics. It eliminated any cities that failed to submit a complete crime report to the FBI and cities with populations under 10,000.
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 publsishers then computed the total number of crimes reported by each city by adding violent crimes and property crimes. Then, a crime rate was created as the number of crimes per 1,000 population.
Of the cities available for the study in Alabama, Sylacauga was ranked 24th overall. The Marble City has a population of 12,186.
In 2018, Sylacauga had 77 violent crimes and 614 property crimes for a sum of 691 total crimes for that year. After normalizing the data, it concluded Sylacauga has 6.32 violent crimes per 1,000 people and 56.70 total crimes per 1,000.
Mountain Brook topped the list with only 11.98 crimes per 1000 and less that one violent crime per 1000.
The top four are all suburbs of Birmingham with Vestavia Hills, Helena and Pelham round out the top four. Daphne, Pleasant Grove, Alabaster Fairhope, Moody and Auburn round out the top 10.
Prattville sits just in front of Sylacauga at number 23. Jacksonville follows Sylacauga to round out the top 25.
View the full study here.
