Once again, the Town of Cary remains the safest place in the state to live, work, and raise a family, according to a study by CQ Press, publisher of the annual “City Crime Rankings 2009-2010”. Cary is the highest-ranked municipality in North Carolina and in the Southeastern US among the nation’s safest cities overall, a designation that the Town has held for 11 years in a row. This year, Cary’s overall safety ranking was 19th safest when compared with every community of any size in the report. And Cary has been declared the 5th safest in the nation among municipalities with populations of 100,000 to 499,999. As of October 1, 2009, Cary’s estimated population was 137,483, making it the seventh largest municipality in NC.

“Even though Cary continues to be one of the safest places in the nation, we never lose sight of the fact that each crime we do have forever impacts one of our family, friends, or neighbors,” said Chief Pat Bazemore. “Keeping Cary safe goes hand-in-hand with keeping Cary one of the best places to live, work, and raise a family, which is why we are constantly looking for opportunities to prevent crime from occurring.”

To help keep Cary safe, this summer the Town moved to GeoPolicing, a new approach to community safety that enables officers to become experts on the needs, issues, and concerns of the people within the specific areas they serve. Police officers once assigned to beats across 55+ square miles are now focused on becoming part of and protecting a single district.

As of October 31, 2009 Cary’s Part I Crimes were down 16% overall compared to last year. Even so, today’s rankings represent a slight change for Cary over last year, when Cary was ranked the 15th safest overall and the 3rd safest large community in America.”

“One of the things we must never forget is that three Cary women lost their lives last year as a result of domestic violence, and that unprecedented loss didn’t just impact our rankings, it changed our community forever,” added Bazemore.

Cary’s pick as a safe city came in an announcement from CQ Press, a publisher of books, directories, research publications, and Web products on U.S. government, world affairs, and communication. A municipality’s ranking is determined by six basic crime categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft. All cities with 75,000+ populations that reported crime data to the FBI for the six crime categories were included in the rankings. Final 2008 statistics were used in determining the rankings.

“When it comes to staying safe, we have to credit not only our tremendously talented, dedicated, and professional police team but also our citizens who really are our partners in our tireless and unending focus on addressing crime,” added Bazemore.

For more information, contact Deanna Boone, Deputy Public Information Officer, (919) 462-3608 or Susan Moran, Public Information Officer, (919) 460-4951