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Christopher Saul

Christopher Saul

Mid Bay News

Low Property Values and Violent Crime Rates Lead to Safest Rating

The City of Niceville Florida was named the safest city in Florida by Safewise.com, a crime statistics news outlet. You can see how they created the rankings here.

 

The report based its metrics on the amount of property and violent crime per capita that takes place in a city. Out of the 143 cities ranked, Niceville jumped 14 spots from last year in order to take the top spot.

Niceville’s violent crime rate was 0.6 crimes per 1,000 people. Down from 0.7 in 2021 and 1.5 in 2020. The Florida state average was a little under five per 1,000 people, meaning that our violent crime rate was one-tenth the state average.

RELATED: Niceville Police Release Statistics for March

 

“This shows the benefits of a partnership between the community and the police,” said Chief David Popwell, “collaborative efforts pay big dividends.”

Niceville property crime rates were very low as well. The number of crimes per 1,000 people was about three – down a large amount from the almost 13 crimes per 1,000 people in 2021.

RELATED: Niceville Police Chief Briefs City Council on Double Homicide Update

Niceville was the only town in the Panhandle that made the top ten list of safest cities in Florida.

“We are quite honored to be recognized as the safest city in Florida. We have great citizens and it speaks volumes about our police force and the leadership of Chief Popwell and his team,” said Niceville Mayor Daniel Henkel.

The report listed Crestview, Florida as the 85th safest city in the state. Fort Walton Beach was named the 76th safest city in the state. Destin was not on the safest cities list this year.

Chief David Popwell
Chief David Popwell
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Mayor Daniel Henkel

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