Safest Cities in Washington – 2021

Last Updated on December 24, 2020

Washington’s crime situation is a bit unusual: the state boasts a violent crime rate considerably below the national average, yet has a significant property crime issue, mainly in Seattle and its other large cities. Nevertheless, Washington is home to a handful of cities where neither violent nor property crime are a significant issue. Here’s a closer look at the Evergreen State’s five safest cities.

Crime rate per 1,000

Law enforcement per 1,000

The safest city in Washington is Oak Harbor, a city of around 23K and the largest on Whidbey Island. Oak Harbor is a very safe community that posted a violent crime rate of just above 1 per 1K and a property crime rate below 7 per 1K in 2018.

#2 on the list is West Richland, a city of 15K in Benton County in the south central part of the state that recorded just 11 violent crimes in 2018. West Richland is notable as the site of Manhattan Project activity in the 1940’s, when the city was run by the Federal War Department.

Washington’s #3 safest city is Camas, a city of around 24K near the state’s southern border that is part of the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. Cama boasts a low violent crime rate of 0.8 per 1K, and its property crime rate is similarly impressive.

Snoqualmie, a city of about 14,000 28 miles east of Seattle, is 4th in the ranking. Made famous as the location of many exterior shots for David Lynch’s cult classic TV series Twin Peaks, Snoqualmie logged just 3 violent crimes in 2018, good enough for the lowest rate in Washington. The city is kept out of the top spot by its 12.12 per 1K property crime rate, which is double #1 Oak Harbor’s rate.

Coming in at #5 is Bainbridge Island, the 2nd largest city in Kitsap County. Bainbridge Island has been awarded an eCity Award for its strong online business community by Google, and its low rate of crime is another remarkable characteristic of the city.

Washington’s Safest Cities

WA	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	Oak Harbor	23,330	24	162	37	186	7.97	1.03	6.94	1.59
2	West Richland	15,012	11	125	23	136	9.06	0.73	8.33	1.53
3	Camas	23,865	19	219	30	238	9.97	0.80	9.18	1.26
4	Snoqualmie	13,947	3	169	26	172	12.33	0.22	12.12	1.86
5	Bainbridge Island	24,739	25	242	26	267	10.79	1.01	9.78	1.05
6	Pullman	33,896	41	371	42	412	12.15	1.21	10.95	1.24
7	Lake Stevens	33,491	63	356	40	419	12.51	1.88	10.63	1.19
8	Liberty Lake	10,272	10	125	12	135	13.14	0.97	12.17	1.17
9	Enumclaw	11,882	9	229	30	238	20.03	0.76	19.27	2.52
10	Grandview	11,163	7	205	23	212	18.99	0.63	18.36	2.06
11	Washougal	15,949	25	251	26	276	17.31	1.57	15.74	1.63
12	Lynden	14,612	18	205	18	223	15.26	1.23	14.03	1.23
13	Cheney	12,715	43	203	23	246	19.35	3.38	15.97	1.81
14	Mill Creek	21,234	19	333	28	352	16.58	0.89	15.68	1.32
15	Poulsbo	10,886	19	227	23	246	22.60	1.75	20.85	2.11
16	Mercer Island	25,641	10	452	34	462	18.02	0.39	17.63	1.33
17	Sunnyside	16,468	37	422	48	459	27.87	2.25	25.63	2.91
18	Lake Forest Park	13,504	14	262	20	276	20.44	1.04	19.40	1.48
19	Bothell	46,387	65	1017	89	1082	23.33	1.40	21.92	1.92
20	Mukilteo	21,638	37	433	36	470	21.72	1.71	20.01	1.66
21	Anacortes	17,130	30	380	33	410	23.93	1.75	22.18	1.93
22	Edmonds	42,565	65	842	63	907	21.31	1.53	19.78	1.48
23	Ferndale	14,439	16	308	23	324	22.44	1.11	21.33	1.59
24	Battle Ground	21,002	32	404	28	436	20.76	1.52	19.24	1.33
25	Bonney Lake	21,192	33	451	34	484	22.84	1.56	21.28	1.60
26	Pasco	74,582	166	1328	87	1494	20.03	2.23	17.81	1.17
27	Monroe	19,003	69	458	41	527	27.73	3.63	24.10	2.16
28	Kirkland	89,805	101	2004	134	2105	23.44	1.12	22.32	1.49
29	Snohomish	10,227	25	265	20	290	28.36	2.44	25.91	1.96
30	Sedro Woolley	11,953	10	309	20	319	26.69	0.84	25.85	1.67
31	Richland	57,450	127	1281	79	1408	24.51	2.21	22.30	1.38
32	Mountlake Terrace	21,549	39	538	35	577	26.78	1.81	24.97	1.62
33	Marysville	70,204	170	1549	95	1719	24.49	2.42	22.06	1.35
34	East Wenatchee	14,097	14	377	24	391	27.74	0.99	26.74	1.70
35	Redmond	65,827	89	1854	117	1943	29.52	1.35	28.16	1.78
36	Wenatchee	34,169	100	851	50	951	27.83	2.93	24.91	1.46
37	Edgewood	11,510	15	231	10	246	21.37	1.30	20.07	0.87
38	Kennewick	82,687	158	2126	116	2284	27.62	1.91	25.71	1.40
39	Ellensburg	20,616	42	601	35	643	31.19	2.04	29.15	1.70
40	Bellevue	146,913	194	4294	210	4488	30.55	1.32	29.23	1.43
41	Walla Walla	32,906	128	1194	77	1322	40.18	3.89	36.29	2.34
42	Lacey	50,844	96	1374	62	1470	28.91	1.89	27.02	1.22
43	Issaquah	38,606	30	1357	72	1387	35.93	0.78	35.15	1.86
44	Tumwater	23,405	84	703	36	787	33.63	3.59	30.04	1.54
45	Lynnwood	38,620	101	1646	105	1747	45.24	2.62	42.62	2.72
46	Port Angeles	19,992	106	823	57	929	46.47	5.30	41.17	2.85
47	Longview	37,720	110	1350	72	1460	38.71	2.92	35.79	1.91
48	Kelso	12,164	52	486	30	538	44.23	4.27	39.95	2.47
49	Bellingham	90,208	204	3346	174	3550	39.35	2.26	37.09	1.93
50	Arlington	19,394	60	662	32	722	37.23	3.09	34.13	1.65
51	Olympia	52,312	246	2020	107	2266	43.32	4.70	38.61	2.05
52	Aberdeen	16,404	85	834	53	919	56.02	5.18	50.84	3.23
53	Vancouver	177,580	819	5852	258	6671	37.57	4.61	32.95	1.45
54	Mount Vernon	35,550	99	1308	57	1407	39.58	2.78	36.79	1.60
55	Everett	111,091	373	4683	230	5056	45.51	3.36	42.15	2.07
56	Des Moines	31,460	111	1092	46	1203	38.24	3.53	34.71	1.46
57	University Place	33,743	72	719	17	791	23.44	2.13	21.31	0.50
58	Moses Lake	23,763	80	1049	44	1129	47.51	3.37	44.14	1.85
59	Centralia	17,299	88	794	36	882	50.99	5.09	45.90	2.08
60	Auburn	82,381	360	3334	133	3694	44.84	4.37	40.47	1.61
61	Seattle	742,759	5052	38246	1954	43298	58.29	6.80	51.49	2.63
62	Sumner	10,191	26	532	23	558	54.75	2.55	52.20	2.26
63	Port Orchard	14,269	67	633	24	700	49.06	4.70	44.36	1.68
64	Lakewood	60,694	393	2818	118	3211	52.90	6.48	46.43	1.94
65	Spokane Valley	99,020	346	4165	133	4511	45.56	3.49	42.06	1.34
66	Kent	129,870	452	5953	197	6405	49.32	3.48	45.84	1.52
67	Federal Way	97,762	458	4480	155	4938	50.51	4.68	45.83	1.59
68	Renton	102,749	331	4915	154	5246	51.06	3.22	47.84	1.50
69	Puyallup	41,572	108	2337	80	2445	58.81	2.60	56.22	1.92
70	Tacoma	215,687	1869	11362	386	13231	61.34	8.67	52.68	1.79
71	Shelton	10,188	52	657	21	709	69.59	5.10	64.49	2.06
72	Spokane	218,222	1742	15439	410	17181	78.73	7.98	70.75	1.88
73	Tukwila	20,288	148	3401	85	3549	174.93	7.29	167.64	4.19

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 Washington – 2021

Washington’s Safest Cities

Methodology

Information

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