Irvine Ranked Third in Safest Cities Survey

Once again, Irvine ranked among the nation’s top 10 safest large cities, according to a survey by Money magazine.

Irvine placed third, just losing out to Thousand Oaks for second place. Amherst, N.Y., a Buffalo suburb, was ranked first. The survey will be in the magazine’s Forecast issue available on newsstands Monday.

“As long as we are in the Top 10, you have to feel pretty good about that,” said Irvine Police Chief Charles Brobeck, who noted the magazine ranked Irvine No. 1 in 1994.

The other Orange County cities on the list of 202 cities were Huntington Beach, No. 15; Orange, 28; Fullerton, 34; Garden Grove, 53; Anaheim, 80, and Santa Ana, 104.

Money commissioned a nationwide telephone poll of 501 people to find out the public’s most urgent crime fears, which were burglary, car theft and robbery, according to the survey. The magazine then had 1995 FBI crime statistics analyzed to determine how cities with populations of 100,000 or more ranked in those categories.

Officials in Irvine, whose population is 128,000, credited the city’s family-oriented atmosphere, an active neighborhood watch program and the Police Department for its consistently high rankings.

“People in Irvine aren’t afraid to call on the smallest issue,” said Brobeck, who has been head of the 138-officer police force for five years.

“We go to investigate and sometimes it turns out to be something much bigger, like a burglary,” he added. “That kind of cooperation between the police force and the public is a cornerstone of our program.”

Newark, N.J., was last on the list, according to the magazine’s survey.

Money magazine’s survey is one of a number of publications and agencies that rank U.S. cities in terms of safety. In addition to the FBI’s annual statistics on violent crime, Kansas-based Morgan Quitno Press also releases its own list of safe cities. Last year, the firm named Huntington Beach “America’s Safest City.”

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Havens from Crime

Irvine is one of the safest cities in America, according to FBI crime statistics cited by Money magazine. The figures are adjusted to give greater weight to crimes considered the most threatening. By those criteria, here are the 10 safest cities with populations of at least 100,000, according to 1995 figures. Also included are other Southern California cities on the list (Orange County cities in bold):

Safest 10 Cities in America

1. Amherst, N.Y.

2. Thousand Oaks, Calif.

3. Irvine

4. Simi Valley, Calif.

5. Sunnyvale, Calif.

6. Virginia Beach, Va.

7. Livonia, Mich.

8. Plano, Texas

9. Madison, Wis.

10. Mesquite, Texas

*

Other Southern California Cities

12. Santa Clarita

15. Huntington Beach

23. Glendale

27. Rancho Cucamonga

28. Orange

30. Burbank

34. Fullerton

39. Torrance

53. Garden Grove

58. West Covina

61. Downey

66. Oxnard

71. Chula Vista

74. Palmdale

75. San Diego

76. Escondido

80. Anaheim

81. Lancaster

90. Moreno Valley

97. Pasadena

102. Norwalk

103. Oceanside

104. Santa Ana

125. Pomona

130. El Monte

131. Ontario

135. Long Beach

143. Riverside

144. Fontana

171. Los Angeles

176. Inglewood

186. San Bernardino

Source: Money magazine