“Where are the safe neighborhoods?”
That’s the first thing most people want to know when they begin researching a town they might move to. This type of research requires rolling up your sleeves and digging into:
- News reports
- City, county, and state crime reports
- Scrutinizing the numbers and toggling back and forth between websites to see what is actually accurate. (And by the way, just how old is the data you are digging up?)
We hear you and have done some of the legwork for you! The information in this post is the most accurate and updated data we could find. It was mainly retrieved from the 2019 Colorado Bureau of Investigation report (the most recently published). These reports are always about the previous year’s crime statistics, so this particular one focused on 2018 numbers. The complete report for 2019 should be available in September 2020. There is a preliminary 2019 comparison available for the first 6 months of 2019 that looks quite positive.
Colorado Crime Statistics is one of the best websites to study all the statistics reported from Colorado police departments. I am genuinely excited to see so much transparency available. It’s so helpful to have precise data being published, and it is also presented in a manner that helps you understand the information quickly and accurately. The accuracy of this data is also the reason why you might see higher numbers in this methodology when compared to other crime stats recordings. If you are still deciding where in Colorado you would like to live, comparing information from Colorado Crime Statistics might help make that choice easier for you.
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Let the numbers speak*:
*Reports by City Police Departments and reflect % change to the previous year (2017).
- Denver continues to have larger numbers than Colorado Springs in every violent crime category. While the number of murders and aggravated assault increased, Denver has managed to reduce its sexual assault cases.
- Colorado Springs’ population has grown by leaps and bounds. Colorado Springs’ population has not officially grown too much, but if you include the surrounding areas you can easily hit more than 600,000 residents. It is true that Colorado Springs could surpass Denver as some point, with a projected growth of 1.3% each year. An increase in the murder rate is never a positive statistic, but the 6.67% increase for 2018is a huge improvement from the 46% increase in 2017.If you’d like to find the safe neighborhoods in the city, we recommend utilizing the My Neighborhood Update website. Simply enter your address and you can see what’s happening in your area based on incident reports from the local police departments.
- Pueblo has had a great year with numbers decreasing overall and in half of the violent crime categories. The Steel City has more improvement ahead of them but they are on the right track.
*Source
Random Facts:
1. Firearms were involved in 958 of the 3117 total violent crimes cases.
2. 50% of murders happened in the home, and 37% of all homicide victims were murdered by people they knew. 44% of murders occurred in parks, camps and roads.
3. In 20% of sex offenses the offender is either unknown (12%) or a stranger (8%).
4. 67% of the aggravated assault victims sustain no or minor injuries.
5. 83% of all robberies happen in public places.
You may have seen or read stories about Colorado’s metro areas: the growth, the expense and the crime! When you look closely at the FBI’s city crime per capita report, Baltimore has the most violent crime per 10,000 residents with 98.6, followed by Memphis, St. Loius and Little Rock. Denver and Colorado Springs are located between 40 and 60.
Related Reading: Neighborhood Red Flags
Safest Neighborhoods
During my research I looked at sites Area Vibes and found them to be less accurate. I was floored when I saw that the Northgate neighborhood in Colorado Springs was given a “F” crime grade. Northgate is a great area with, to my knowledge, very little crime. However, the website algorithm might be playing a trick on the number. If you take the Northgate crime numbers and compare them to the population there, and then calculate what that crime rate would be per 100,000 capita you’ll get a rate higher than St. Louis (the number 1 crime city in the country). That just doesn’t add up. Another note: The majority of crimes listed in the Northgate numbers were property crimes. Northgate is also an affluent area that could attract this type of criminal activity.
Neighborhood Scout ranks all of Colorado Springs at 11 out of 100 cities, where 100 is the safest city. Again, this could be a calculation issue and this rating does not reflect the FBI statistics. The moral of the story: approach your research with an analytical mind and avoid taking stats at face value.
It was not possible to obtain detailed crime rates for the individual parts of town, but here are the best neighborhoods by research, local knowledge, and a little subjectivity:
1. Monument
2. Palmer Lake
3. Black Forest
4. Broadmoor
5. Rockrimmon
6. Woodmoor
7. Several smaller neighborhoods in Briargate
8. West of Fort Carson
9. Falcon/Peyton
10. Northgate
11. Gleneagle
12. Flying Horse
Also, please know that there are many smaller areas and neighborhoods in town that are little islands of wonderful community bliss. The following websites can help you find those smaller areas:
How to improve the safety in your neighborhood
There are a few things you can do if the neighborhood you live in is not quite as attentive as you would like. It will require a little work, but neighbors will appreciate your initiative and follow your example.
- Pick areas with high community involvement where neighbors know each other and community events happen. A tight community means residents are watching out for each other. If it’s not happening at the moment, maybe you can take the initiative and plan a neighborhood block party or community garage sale?
- It takes a village. Really get to know each other, learn about kids and elderly people in your neighborhood, and help out when needed. Exchange phone numbers and get together regularly.
- If neighbors are out of town, offer to pick up newspapers or maybe mow their lawn in order to discourage potential criminal activity.
- Also, if you and all your neighbors have a well-kept yard, it gives fewer opportunities for suspicious persons to hide, or not to even attract them with a house or yard that looks abandoned.
- Consider setting up a neighborhood watch program in your community.
Disclaimer: We did our very best to come up with accurate information and research. These numbers are deemed to be accurate are not guaranteed.
Additional Resources
