Like other states in the south central region of the United States, Arkansas has an issue with crime. The state’s violent crime rate of 5.44 per 1,000 is 47% above the national rate, and it doesn’t fare much better in property crime. Yet, that isn’t to say that Arkansas is without safe communities, as a handful of the state’s cities posted admirable crime rates in 2018, irrespective of statewide rates.
Bella Vista is Arkansas’ safest city by a wide margin. The resort/retirement community offers plenty of amenities to visitors and residents, such as golf courses, swimming pools, and tennis courts. Folks in Bella Vista always have plenty to do, which may explain why the city’s total crime rate of 8.54 per 1,000 is 32% lower than the next-lowest entry.
Arkansas 2nd safest city is Centerton, a suburban bedroom community in Benton County whose population has shot up in recent decades. Folks are drawn to northwest Arkansas’ strong, diversified economy, as well as Centerton’s low crime: the city’s 8.79 per 1,000 rate of property crime is less than one-third of the statewide rate.
Ranking 3rd is Bentonville., the largest city in the state’s top 5 with a population over 51K. Famous as the birthplace and headquarters of Walmart, Bentonville has less-than-half of the violent crime of Arkansas, on a whole.
#4 Cabot, a mid-sized suburb of state capital Little Rock, may be the best place to live for those who work in the larger city. Cabot’s violent crime rate of 1.47 per 1,000 is the lowest in the state, but the city is kept from the top spot due to its slightly higher level of property crime.
Maumelle (#5) fills out the list of Arkansas’ 5 safest cities. The Pulaski County city’s total crime rate is higher than those of preceding entries, yet Maumelle still earned violent and property crime rates below state and national averages.
Arkansas’ Safest Cities
AR City Population Violent
crimeProperty
crimeLaw enforcement
employeesTotal crimes Crime rate per 1,000 Violent crimes per 1,000 Property crimes per 1,000 Law enforcement per 1,000
1 Bella Vista 28798 53 193 49 246 8.54 1.84 6.70 1.70
2 Centerton 14791 59 130 24 189 12.78 3.99 8.79 1.62
3 Bentonville 51607 106 705 104 811 15.71 2.05 13.66 2.02
4 Cabot 26459 39 403 55 442 16.71 1.47 15.23 2.08
5 Maumelle 18356 47 326 48 373 20.32 2.56 17.76 2.61
6 Siloam Springs 17102 78 326 52 404 23.62 4.56 19.06 3.04
7 Arkadelphia 10647 45 256 29 301 28.27 4.23 24.04 2.72
8 Magnolia 11425 22 274 23 296 25.91 1.93 23.98 2.01
9 Batesville 10782 46 311 28 357 33.11 4.27 28.84 2.60
10 Sherwood 31284 180 978 99 1158 37.02 5.75 31.26 3.16
11 Harrison 13100 65 468 46 533 40.69 4.96 35.73 3.51
12 Rogers 68026 294 1925 150 2219 32.62 4.32 28.30 2.21
13 North Little Rock 66424 494 2287 219 2781 41.87 7.44 34.43 3.30
14 Van Buren 23608 134 771 61 905 38.33 5.68 32.66 2.58
15 Conway 66720 361 2229 173 2590 38.82 5.41 33.41 2.59
16 Springdale 80895 388 2702 201 3090 38.20 4.80 33.40 2.48
17 Benton 36556 182 1234 93 1416 38.74 4.98 33.76 2.54
18 Russellville 29455 114 904 59 1018 34.56 3.87 30.69 2.00
19 Bryant 20738 32 889 57 921 44.41 1.54 42.87 2.75
20 Texarkana 30300 200 1256 93 1456 48.05 6.60 41.45 3.07
21 Mountain Home 12315 22 590 35 612 49.70 1.79 47.91 2.84
22 Jonesboro 77134 425 3143 173 3568 46.26 5.51 40.75 2.24
23 Camden 10880 127 488 36 615 56.53 11.67 44.85 3.31
24 Marion 12426 125 500 31 625 50.30 10.06 40.24 2.49
25 Helena-West Helena 10477 157 471 33 628 59.94 14.99 44.96 3.15
26 West Memphis 24668 486 1262 108 1748 70.86 19.70 51.16 4.38
27 Fayetteville 87008 496 3768 178 4264 49.01 5.70 43.31 2.05
28 El Dorado 17916 196 1069 68 1265 70.61 10.94 59.67 3.80
29 Pine Bluff 42195 679 2278 150 2957 70.08 16.09 53.99 3.55
30 Blytheville 13843 137 837 49 974 70.36 9.90 60.46 3.54
31 Jacksonville 28530 331 1322 62 1653 57.94 11.60 46.34 2.17
32 Fort Smith 88290 707 4265 181 4972 56.31 8.01 48.31 2.05
33 Hot Springs 37006 194 2592 129 2786 75.29 5.24 70.04 3.49
34 Forrest City 14144 132 882 44 1014 71.69 9.33 62.36 3.11
35 Little Rock 199288 2882 13049 701 15931 79.94 14.46 65.48 3.52
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.
