Higher than average crime rates in the large cities of Memphis and Nashville keep Tennessee out of the discussion of the country’s safest states, yet the Volunteer State is home to many municipalities with comfortingly low crime rates that are considerably below state and nationwide levels.
Brentwood is Tennessee’s safest city. The affluent Nashville suburb is home to many country music stars and professional athletes, and boasts low crime rates that stand in contrast to the larger nearby city, including a violent crime rate of 0.8 per 1,000 and a property crime rate of 9.26 per 1,000.
#2 Germantown is a suburb of Memphis which received the 2019 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for its performance excellence. The city’s violent crime rate is on par with #1 Brentwood’s, yet Germantown logged a slightly higher property crime rate of 15.44 per 1,000.
The 3rd safest city in Tennessee is Spring Hill, a city of 41K in the Nashville Metropolitan Area. Spring Hill achieved a violent crime rate of 1.04 per 1,000, along with a property crime rate of 10.78, in 2018.
Franklin, Tennessee’s 4th safest city, is by far the largest in the state’s top 5, with a population topping 80,000 that is nearly double that of the next largest entry. Known for its many historic buildings and neighborhoods dating back to the 19th century, Franklin boasts crime rates well below the averages for a city of its size.
Rounding out the list of Tennessee’s five safest cities is Gallatin, a city of 38.4K that is home to several national company headquarters. While it’s violent crime rate of 3.15 per 1,000 is not terribly impressive, the city is boosted in the ranking by its well-staffed police force.
Tennessee’s Safest Cities
TN 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 Brentwood 43507 35 403 79 438 10.07 0.80 9.26 1.82
2 Germantown 39179 30 605 127 635 16.21 0.77 15.44 3.24
3 Spring Hill 41354 43 446 56 489 11.82 1.04 10.78 1.35
4 Franklin 80825 119 982 143 1101 13.62 1.47 12.15 1.77
5 Gallatin 38450 121 538 93 659 17.14 3.15 13.99 2.42
6 Collegedale 12189 5 181 22 186 15.26 0.41 14.85 1.80
7 Collierville 50985 83 868 136 951 18.65 1.63 17.02 2.67
8 Hendersonville 58437 113 914 136 1027 17.57 1.93 15.64 2.33
9 Maryville 28961 47 480 64 527 18.20 1.62 16.57 2.21
10 Portland 12887 36 227 34 263 20.41 2.79 17.61 2.64
11 Bartlett 59407 190 1119 163 1309 22.03 3.20 18.84 2.74
12 Mount Juliet 36397 72 630 74 702 19.29 1.98 17.31 2.03
13 Martin 10418 27 245 38 272 26.11 2.59 23.52 3.65
14 Lewisburg 11967 80 216 36 296 24.73 6.69 18.05 3.01
15 Soddy-Daisy 13804 20 316 37 336 24.34 1.45 22.89 2.68
16 Paris 10088 45 283 36 328 32.51 4.46 28.05 3.57
17 Lebanon 33181 185 940 110 1125 33.90 5.58 28.33 3.32
18 Oak Ridge 29067 164 734 79 898 30.89 5.64 25.25 2.72
19 La Vergne 36167 157 820 75 977 27.01 4.34 22.67 2.07
20 Goodlettsville 17000 78 534 57 612 36.00 4.59 31.41 3.35
21 Bristol 26863 151 857 86 1008 37.52 5.62 31.90 3.20
22 Red Bank 11768 52 296 22 348 29.57 4.42 25.15 1.87
23 Manchester 10719 62 401 38 463 43.19 5.78 37.41 3.55
24 Clinton 10137 56 431 41 487 48.04 5.52 42.52 4.04
25 Clarksville 156264 1041 4514 342 5555 35.55 6.66 28.89 2.19
26 McMinnville 13668 86 489 41 575 42.07 6.29 35.78 3.00
27 Shelbyville 21708 153 657 51 810 37.31 7.05 30.27 2.35
28 Columbia 38802 246 1246 94 1492 38.45 6.34 32.11 2.42
29 Murfreesboro 140702 613 4417 292 5030 35.75 4.36 31.39 2.08
30 Greeneville 14867 65 636 53 701 47.15 4.37 42.78 3.56
31 Tullahoma 19321 106 618 42 724 37.47 5.49 31.99 2.17
32 Alcoa 10506 82 516 51 598 56.92 7.81 49.11 4.85
33 East Ridge 21135 100 749 50 849 40.17 4.73 35.44 2.37
34 Sevierville 16999 92 833 71 925 54.41 5.41 49.00 4.18
35 Springfield 16896 145 530 38 675 39.95 8.58 31.37 2.25
36 Johnson City 66795 274 2622 172 2896 43.36 4.10 39.25 2.58
37 Jackson 66848 670 2866 248 3536 52.90 10.02 42.87 3.71
38 Cookeville 33785 143 1418 94 1561 46.20 4.23 41.97 2.78
39 Crossville 11535 95 538 45 633 54.88 8.24 46.64 3.90
40 Dickson 15637 133 757 61 890 56.92 8.51 48.41 3.90
41 Elizabethton 13657 62 680 45 742 54.33 4.54 49.79 3.30
42 Morristown 29884 242 1388 92 1630 54.54 8.10 46.45 3.08
43 Lawrenceburg 10807 67 556 37 623 57.65 6.20 51.45 3.42
44 Metropolitan Nashville Police Department 686492 7641 27537 1757 35178 51.24 11.13 40.11 2.56
45 Millington 11016 101 586 40 687 62.36 9.17 53.20 3.63
46 Knoxville 188653 1508 8827 502 10335 54.78 7.99 46.79 2.66
47 Dyersburg 16382 204 943 65 1147 70.02 12.45 57.56 3.97
48 Kingsport 53465 404 2801 140 3205 59.95 7.56 52.39 2.62
49 Chattanooga 180397 1891 10930 601 12821 71.07 10.48 60.59 3.33
50 Memphis 652226 12674 41779 2605 54453 83.49 19.43 64.06 3.99
51 Cleveland 44954 412 2512 108 2924 65.04 9.16 55.88 2.40
52 Athens 13627 119 1043 32 1162 85.27 8.73 76.54 2.35
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.
