Newport is the least safe community (per capita/1,000 residents) in Rhode Island according to crime index and crime rate data from NeighborhoodScout.com, a website dedicated to building “the best location-based technologies possible to empower businesses to make informed decisions that translate to increased revenue and reduced costs.”
We dug into the date after reading The 10 Safest Communities in Rhode Island that was posted on 630WPRO.com on February 19th.
Newport has a crime index of 9 (100 is the safest), meaning it is safer than just 9% of the cities in the United States. It has the lowest crime index. For reference, Providence has a crime index of 10 and Central Falls has a crime index of 13
The safest community in Rhode Island? That would be Glocester with a crime index of 93, followed next by Scituate with a crime index of 91.
As for our neighbors on Aquidneck Island, Middletown has a crime index of 34 and Portsmouth has a crime index of 68.
See the full state’s crime, real estate and appreciation rate data by city/town HERE.
Where The Statistics Come From
The crime rates developed are based on data and crime statistics from the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department. NeighborhoodScout.com gathers data from all 18,000 local law enforcement agencies in the United States, and use a relational database to associate crime incidences from all of these law enforcement agencies to the specific local communities the agency covers, and hence in which community the crimes have occurred.
Newport Being A Tourist Destination Doesn’t Help
Crime rates can appear higher because Newport has a lot of tourists (non-permanent residents) in our community, because the number of crimes (violent, property, or both) is divided by the permanent population, creating a crime rate per 1,000 residents. Visitors can increase the number of crimes, but do not count in establishing the rate because they don’t live here, thus increasing the crime rate score per 1,000 residents.
Newport Annual Crime Statistics
Violent Crimes: 95 (3.94 annual per 1,000 residents)
Property Crimes: 976 (40.52 annual per 1,000 residents)
Total Crimes: 1071 (44.46 annual per 1,000 residents)
How Current Is The Crime Data?
NeighborhoodScout’s crime data are always the most recent ‘Final, Non-Preliminary’ data available as classified by the FBI. It is the most up-to-date and fully-vetted data with complete national coverage that is available.
Currently, the latest Final, Non-Preliminary crime data with complete national coverage available is the 2014 year total data, released in final form in November, 2015. At this time, the 2015 year total crime data is not complete. Because the FBI has to work through data and reporting issues, there is always an 8-10 month lag after the close of a calendar year before the data for that year can be released as Final, Non-Preliminary.
For instance, last year’s final, raw crime data will be released in the fall and processed, modeled and built into what you see on NeighborhoodScout within 60 days after its release.
The 2015 data will be considered Final, Non-Preliminary sometime in the fall of 2016.
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