Safest Cities in Michigan – 2021

Last Updated on December 27, 2020

The crime situation in Michigan is one of contrasts: the state has 1 of the top 15 highest violent crime rates in the U.S., yet its property crime rate is well below the national level. Meanwhile, the state is home to some of the highest crime areas in the country (Flint, parts of Detroit), as well as communities where crime is exceedingly scarce. Today, let’s put the focus on the safest cities in the Great Lake State.

Crime rate per 1,000

Law enforcement per 1,000

Grosse Ile Township is the safest community in Michigan. The municipality comprises several islands within the Detroit River and was named by French explorers who visited the area in the 17th century. In 2018, Gross Ile posted some of the lowest crime figures in the country: a 0.30 per 1,000 violent crime rate, and a 3.36 per 1,000 property crime rate.

Michigan’s 2nd safest community is Rochester, a city of 13K north of Detroit. With just 8 reported violent crimes and property crime 6 times below the national rate in 2018, Rochester earns its place in the upper echelon of safe cities in America.

#3 South Lyon is not far behind: the Oakland County city recorded a property crime rate similar to the two prior entries on the list, albeit with a marginally higher violent crime rate of about 1 offense per 1,000.

Beverly Hills, another Oakland County suburb, is Michigan’s 4th safest municipality. The largest village in the state is also one of those with the least amount of crime, logging just 5 violent crimes and 57 property crimes in 2018.

Hamburg Township, the most populated municipality in Livingston County, earns Michigan’s #5 spot. The village recorded the lowest total crime rate in all of Michigan, and is kept out of the top position only due to a low law enforcement-to-residents ratio of 0.82 per 1,000.

Michigan’s Safest Cities

Show entries

MI	City	Population	Violent crime	Property crime	Law enforcement employees	Total crimes	Crime rate per 1,000	Violent crimes per 1,000	Property crimes per 1,000	Law enforcement per 1,000
1	Grosse Ile Township	10128	3	34	24	37	3.65	0.30	3.36	2.37
2	Rochester	13075	8	48	30	56	4.28	0.61	3.67	2.29
3	South Lyon	11803	12	40	17	52	4.41	1.02	3.39	1.44
4	Beverly Hills	10450	5	57	26	62	5.93	0.48	5.45	2.49
5	Hamburg Township	22024	10	67	18	77	3.50	0.45	3.04	0.82
6	Berkley	15382	5	87	34	92	5.98	0.33	5.66	2.21
7	Milford	16808	10	67	20	77	4.58	0.59	3.99	1.19
8	New Baltimore	12423	8	57	18	65	5.23	0.64	4.59	1.45
9	Birmingham	21295	10	137	42	147	6.90	0.47	6.43	1.97
10	Trenton	18176	22	104	35	126	6.93	1.21	5.72	1.93
11	Farmington	10605	20	58	23	78	7.36	1.89	5.47	2.17
12	West Bloomfield Township	65928	38	386	103	424	6.43	0.58	5.85	1.56
13	Flushing Township	10179	5	45	9	50	4.91	0.49	4.42	0.88
14	Clawson	11962	12	69	18	81	6.77	1.00	5.77	1.50
15	Plymouth Township	27032	24	165	42	189	6.99	0.89	6.10	1.55
16	Bloomfield Township	42199	21	327	89	348	8.25	0.50	7.75	2.11
17	East Grand Rapids	11886	6	122	30	128	10.77	0.50	10.26	2.52
18	Farmington Hills	81239	69	681	140	750	9.23	0.85	8.38	1.72
19	Royal Oak	59383	56	481	93	537	9.04	0.94	8.10	1.57
20	Big Rapids	10369	24	86	21	110	10.61	2.31	8.29	2.03
21	Shelby Township	79878	119	500	86	619	7.75	1.49	6.26	1.08
22	Huron Township	15930	34	120	26	154	9.67	2.13	7.53	1.63
23	Novi	60378	43	532	94	575	9.52	0.71	8.81	1.56
24	Riverview	12058	14	116	22	130	10.78	1.16	9.62	1.82
25	Thomas Township	11488	8	68	8	76	6.62	0.70	5.92	0.70
26	Marquette	20529	23	204	38	227	11.06	1.12	9.94	1.85
27	Grosse Pointe Park	11069	0	175	38	175	15.81	0.00	15.81	3.43
28	Green Oak Township	18874	25	140	19	165	8.74	1.32	7.42	1.01
29	Midland	41961	55	354	50	409	9.75	1.31	8.44	1.19
30	DeWitt Township	15194	18	127	17	145	9.54	1.18	8.36	1.12
31	Bath Township	12984	14	106	13	120	9.24	1.08	8.16	1.00
32	Northville Township	28939	21	302	42	323	11.16	0.73	10.44	1.45
33	Grand Haven	10984	21	173	36	194	17.66	1.91	15.75	3.28
34	St. Clair Shores	59618	132	591	88	723	12.13	2.21	9.91	1.48
35	Grosse Pointe Woods	15497	13	225	36	238	15.36	0.84	14.52	2.32
36	Brownstown Township	31912	78	281	39	359	11.25	2.44	8.81	1.22
37	Davison Township	19177	40	171	21	211	11.00	2.09	8.92	1.10
38	Sterling Heights	133055	240	1334	168	1574	11.83	1.80	10.03	1.26
39	Troy	84221	52	1157	152	1209	14.36	0.62	13.74	1.80
40	Canton Township	92055	134	986	119	1120	12.17	1.46	10.71	1.29
41	Fraser	14626	23	198	28	221	15.11	1.57	13.54	1.91
42	Livonia	93740	138	1313	167	1451	15.48	1.47	14.01	1.78
43	Garden City	26520	105	241	33	346	13.05	3.96	9.09	1.24
44	Ferndale	20095	39	341	51	380	18.91	1.94	16.97	2.54
45	Grand Blanc Township	36489	49	448	47	497	13.62	1.34	12.28	1.29
46	Madison Heights	30100	89	435	62	524	17.41	2.96	14.45	2.06
47	Ionia	11170	48	120	17	168	15.04	4.30	10.74	1.52
48	Waterford Township	73066	146	750	70	896	12.26	2.00	10.26	0.96
49	Oak Park	29688	83	455	60	538	18.12	2.80	15.33	2.02
50	Chesterfield Township	45686	59	630	58	689	15.08	1.29	13.79	1.27

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Methodology

To identify the safest cities, we reviewed the most recent FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics. We eliminated any cities that failed to submit a complete crime report to the FBI and cities with populations under 10,000. This left 3,381 cities (out of a total of 9,251).

There are two broad classifications of crimes: violent crimes and non-violent crimes. According to the FBI, “Violent crime is composed of four offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Violent crimes are defined in the UCR Program as those offenses that involve force or threat of force. Property crime includes the offenses of burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. The object of the theft-type offenses is the taking of money or property, but there is no force or threat of force against the victims. ”

We computed the total number of crimes reported by each city by adding violent crimes and property crimes. We then created a crime rate as the number of crimes per 1,000 population. Then we transformed the total crime rate variable so that the skewness was reduced and normalized.

Data from 2,831 law enforcement agencies was then collected to determine police adequacy (TotalCrimes / Number of police employees). We consider that the smaller the police adequacy statistic is, the safer the city is. This variable was also transformed and normalized.

Finally, the two variables were combined to create a safety score for each city.

Safest Cities in Michigan – 2021

Michigan’s Safest Cities

Methodology

Information

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