Glendale improves ranking in crime survey

Glendale improved its ranking among low-crime cities in a national survey released this week.

In a survey of 400 cities by CQ Press for 2010-11, Glendale ranked 34th among metropolitan areas with low crime, up from No. 45 last year.

“We are always looking at ways to keep it as safe as a community as possible,” Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian said.

He attributed the city’s decreasing crime rate to an increasing partnership between police and residents.

“A watchful neighborhood is a safer neighborhood,” Najarian said.

The rankings were determined based on the number of murders, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries and vehicle thefts submitted last year to the FBI.

While researchers used government-compiled crime data to create the report, the FBI has cautioned against the use of its data for rankings because it can “lead to simplistic and/or incomplete analyses that often create misleading perceptions adversely affecting cities and counties, along with their residents.”

Calls to CQ Press were not returned Tuesday, but in a statement, the organization stated “this criticism is largely based on the fact that there are reasons for the differences in crime rates, not that the rates are incompatible.”

Colonie, N.Y., topped the list with the lowest crime rate in the nation, according to the report. St. Louis had the highest crime rate.

Burbank’s ranking also improved, from 101st in 2009 to 94th this year.

Burbank Police Sgt. Robert Quesada said the number of crimes reported to the Police Department this year has been decreasing.

“If the rankings are showing down this year, then it probably is true,” he said.

Still, he cautioned that the rankings “could be misleading.”