By Sherri Blevins
On March 20, Rainsville received some exciting news. Safewise released its 9th annual Safest Cities in Alabama report in 2023, and Rainsville is listed in the top 20 at number eight. Safewise congratulated the first responders, city officials, and neighborhood watch leaders for their hard work to keep the community safe.
MVN spoke with Mayor Lingerfelt about the news. Lingerfelt said, “Yesterday I received a notification that the City of Rainsville was the eighth safest city in the State of Alabama which is a great accomplishment by our police department, fire department, and all the other city workers in Rainsville. It is a great honor for the city to have this; it is a great place to live. With that, I thank all of our employees for the job that they do because it is a great accomplishment to get to that point.”
The Safewise report stated that Alabama’s violent and property crime rates are higher than the national average, and both have increased year over year. The violent crime rate grew from 4.5 per 1,000 residents to 6.0 this year. The state’s property crime rate rose from 21.4 incidents per 1,000 to 25.9.
According to the report, all of the safest cities reported less than 2.2 violent crimes per 1,000 residents, with most reporting less than 1.0. The safest cities have a 51% lower crime rate than the rest of the state.
The top 10 Safest Cities are listed below:
- Warrior
- Kimberly
- Southside
- Hamilton
- Priceville
- Fairhope
- Dothan
- Rainsville
- Glencoe
- Margaret
To view the full report, visit www.safewise.com/state-of-state/al/.
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