By ETHAN HARTLEY Warwick has been rated as a top-five safest city in the country for the second year in a row, according to independent research analyst company Wallethub's 2018 Safest Cities in America report, which was released on Monday. Last year
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Warwick has been rated as a top-five safest city in the country for the second year in a row, according to independent research analyst company Wallethub’s 2018 Safest Cities in America report, which was released on Monday.
Last year Warwick was rated the third safest city in the nation, with the second lowest recorded number of violent crimes of any city in the country. This year, the city was ranked fifth overall, trailing only Virginia Beach, Va., Plano, Texas, South Burlington, Vt. and Columbia, Md. (rated the safest city).
Providence was ranked 62nd, one spot lower than its rating in 2017, and Boston ranked 106th, a significant improvement over its 133rd rank from 2017. The next closest New England municipality after Warwick was Nashua, N.H., which was ranked ninth.
Warwick Police Chief Colonel Stephen McCartney said on Monday that he hadn’t heard of the ranking, but was complimentary of his police force who he said has maintained its high expectations of service to the community despite going through a collective bargaining year – which usually results in higher than average retirements. The department hovered around 175 officers last year, as opposed to a staffing level of 167 at this time, he said.
McCartney agreed that the Warwick Police Department takes a community-first approach, which emphasizes a strategy of ingraining themselves within the neighborhoods they serve and making themselves available to citizens to answer questions and provide a sense of comfort that things are being kept in check.
McCartney also had high praise for the community itself, as the police are much more able to do their jobs when they have a cooperative populace that wants to help keep the city safe.
“I think we're blessed with a good constituency too,” he said. “I have to honestly say by far and large, the good people we serve here are very responsive to police. I know when we go to the meetings, there's good questions asked and there's great interest into their quality of life and good cooperation with people. We try to give them crime tips about what they should do in terms of their part, and they're great about calling us.”
The praise extended to members of the Warwick City Council, as McCartney said they provide a great resource to further connect with constituents and help organize community meetings.
“Our elected officials and the city council has been very supportive of us,” he said.
To determine its rankings for the 2018 safest cities, Wallethub analyzed statistics from 182 cities across America and graded them according to three key dimensions – home and community safety; natural disaster risk; and financial safety. Within those dimensions were 39 relevant metrics, such as the number of violence crimes, the risk of flooding and the rates of unemployment and poverty.
Within the key dimensions, Warwick ranked 11th overall in home and community safety, 22nd in natural disaster risk and 51st in financial safety for an aggregate point total of 83.46 out of a possible 100 points. The highest rated city, Columbia, Maryland, scored 85.98 overall, for context.
“I am very proud that Warwick has scored so well,” said Mayor Joseph Solomon. “This reflects the hard work of our public safety employees and our continued vigilance to ensure that those who visit and live and work in our community can feel assured of their safety. It also shows that our ongoing efforts to increase economic development and keep Warwick affordable are paying dividends.”
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richardcorrente
I've been to Columbia Maryland. Warwick has them beat...hands down!
Our Police Department is the best there is. Period.
Merry Christmas everyone.
Rick Corrente
The Taxpayers Mayor
Thursday, December 6, 2018 Report this
Justanidiot
its hands up master mayer. get on the ground. stop being black.
Thursday, December 6, 2018 Report this
wwkvoter
CORRECTION: corrente is mayor of no one.
Monday, December 10, 2018 Report this
CrickeeRaven
100% correct yet again, WwkVoter. The double election reject represents no one, and certainly not all the honest, taxpaying voters in Warwick who dealt him two overwhelming and humiliating losses at the polls in 2016 and 2018.
His continued use of a make-believe title is, contrary to what he may intend, less an irritant than it is a clear sign of his utter inability to keep from making a disgraceful spectacle of himself, and his obvious attention to keep using this website for free political advertising. The more he uses that make-believe title, the less credible he is.
[And that's really an accomplishment, you must admit: Eroding one's credibility below zero is quite a feat.]
The WPD is a great department with officers who know what is a crime and what is not, for instance when a candidate puts up campaign signs on public property and another citizen removes them.
The removal of such signs isn't a crime, as the WPD correctly determined.
Thanks again for calling him out on his blatant lie.
Tuesday, December 11, 2018 Report this