Vt. among safest states in nation
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Rutland City Police Officer Seth Richardson walks back to his cruiser after making traffic stop on West Street in Rutland on Monday. Law enfrorcement agencies in Vermont now can boast that they have the lowest crime rates in the country. VYTO STARINSKAS / RUTLAND HERALD |
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By Brent Curtis Staff Writer - Published: March 24, 2009
Vermont ranked as the second-safest state in the nation in an annual analysis of crime statistics released on Monday.
The report printed by CQ Press, which publishes a wide array of informational materials related to governments, institutions and current affairs, contained a lot of good news for Vermont. It placed second only to next-door-neighbor New Hampshire for reported offenses.
Vermont, which ranked fourth overall in the nation last year, moved up two places thanks to a 3 percent drop in crime in 2007 — the most recent reporting year.
"Vermont and New Hampshire have been near the top of the list in terms of safe places to live in recent years," said Ben Krasney, a spokesman for CQ Press, based in Washington, D.C. "Compared to other states, Vermont has consistently been below average in terms of violent crimes and property damage."
Krasney couldn't say what Vermont is doing right — the report simply compares reports for six types of crime balanced between states by per capita estimates.
Using the report's methodology, the results are striking.
In terms of murder, the 12 slayings in 2007 tied with North Dakota for lowest in the country and the ratio of 1.9 killings per 100,000 people in 2007 ranked seventh in the country, which had a 5.6 per 100,000-person average that year.
"We had 181 in D.C. in 2007," Krasney said. "You don't realize how low the number 12 is until you look at some other cities and states."
In other categories, Vermont ranked third-lowest in the nation for aggravated assaults, fourth-lowest for rapes, second-lowest for robberies and lowest in the U.S. for motor vehicle thefts, Krasney said.
The news was welcome among legislators and law enforcement officials in the state who said the statistics had their usefulness beyond raising morale.
"I mention those numbers several times during the session," said Senate Judiciary Chairman Richard Sears, a Bennington County Democrat.
"I use it quite a bit to show the importance of quality of life in Vermont …. I also like those numbers because they rebut the mayor of Boston every time he says that Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine contribute to crime in Boston because of the liberal gun laws here," Sears said.
New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine had the three lowest crime rates in 2007, according to the CQ report.
Vermont State Police Col. James Baker said the numbers served as proof that law enforcement was doing its job in the state and should get the help it needs to continue meeting high standards.
"A lot of people say 'Why do we need to invest in law enforcement when we're a safe state?'" Baker said. "The answer is we're a safe state because we invest in law enforcement."
As helpful as the rankings released on Monday are, the statistics have their blind spots, according to Max Schlueter, director of the Vermont Criminal Information Center.
For starters, there is the problem that comes from essentially comparing apples and oranges in comparing states — a problem that CQ Press readily acknowledges.
"Crime levels are affected by many different factors, such as population density, composition of the population (particularly the concentration of youth), climate, economic conditions, strength of local law enforcement agencies, citizens' attitudes toward crime, cultural factors, education levels, crime reporting practices of citizens and family cohesiveness. Accordingly, crime rankings often are deemed 'simplistic' or 'incomplete,'" the company wrote in a statement attached to the rankings.
Schlueter said the reports focus on only a handful of crimes masks a variety of related offenses.
For example, while Vermont had 121 rapes in 2007, there were 181 other sexual assaults ranging from statutory rape and incest to forcible fondling and forced sodomy.
The state's 2,585 drug offenses, which included 144 in Rutland, are also absent in the report.
"It's not that it doesn't have any value, but it's like the Dow Jones index," Schlueter said. "The Dow may go down a few points, but it doesn't mean that every stock went down."
brent.curtis@rutlandherald.com
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