Tukwila, Washington, a small city of about 19,000 residents near Seattle, was recently named America’s “Most Dangerous City” by a company called Safewise, which appears to be a broker of home security systems posing as an online resource for community safety. The list, “30 Most Dangerous Cities in America,” is mostly made up lower income and racially diverse communities with populations of between 10,000 and 20,000 (with a few exceptions). Conversely, the same company maintains a “Safest Cities in America” list, which is primarily made up of wealthy New England townships and other small, rich, and predominantly white communities.
Tukwila is home to the very large Westfield Southcenter mall and many other retail and commercial establishments, and its daytime visitors number in the hundreds of thousands. Thus, any crimes committed within its boundaries, including shoplifting and parking lot car break-ins, completely skew its per capita property crime statistics. Tukwila’s violent crime rate isn’t especially high, but apparently in Safewise’s world, property crime holds greater weight than violent crime as a measure of “safety.”
Please consider sending a message to the creators of the "30 Most Dangerous Cities" list through their website’s contact form. I sent the message below, and I'd like to see this effort gain momentum.
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Dear Safewise,
My comment was deleted from your "30 Most Dangerous Cities" page, so I'm sending this message directly through your website’s contact form. First of all, I hope your company understands that when people see their cities labeled as dangerous, it's incredibly demoralizing. Communities that struggle with crime don't need to be beat over the head by it, especially if they’re doing their best to address the problem. When a city is so subjectively labeled as crime-ridden, it discourages the kind of private investments that such communities desperately need, like public-private housing developments and new retail projects. And frankly, such labels are deeply hurtful.
The criteria you use to compile your annual list is also questionable. Since when is property crime a measure of a city’s “danger?” I’m fairly certain most people consider the violent crime rate to be a more appropriate measure of safety. Even if violent crime were the sole criteria used, I would still take issue with your list, since I don’t believe your intentions are honorable; you’re clearly attempting to promote hysteria to the benefit of your business.
Including communities on your list with small residential populations but large numbers of daytime visitors, like Tukwila, WA. Emeryville, CA and Branson, MO, is entirely disingenuous. Besides the obvious problem that such communities are more accurately described as “towns," their per capita crime statistics, particularly for property crime, are distorted by intensive retail, commercial, or tourist activity. Shoplifting that occurs at a large mall is not representative of the dangers that actual residents experience in their neighborhoods, for example.
Finally, I see that many of the cities on your most dangerous list are communities where people of color make up the majority of residents. I find that curious, especially since your “Safest Cities” list is mostly made up of small towns in the Northeast with extremely low racial diversity (like Ridgefield, CT, which is 96% white). Given the subjective nature of your statistical methodologies, one could make the argument that you’re attempting to suggest that “danger” is synonymous with people of color. Is that the sort of message you want your company to be associated with?
Your list has truly struck a nerve with me, and I intend to make an issue of it on social media until your company decides to end its annual pronouncement of “most dangerous cities.” I’ll be happy to provide you with some ideas on how you can promote more constructive messages in the future.
Sincerely,
Kevin Poole
Renton, WA