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MiamiHerald.com | 10/31/2006 | Coral Springs in Top 10 survey of safe U.S. cities

NATIONAL CRIME REPORT

Coral Springs in Top 10 survey of safe U.S. cities

Coral Springs was named one of the safest cities in the country, according to a national ranking.

BY ANI MARTINEZ

armartinez@MiamiHerald.com

Coral Springs may be the safest place in Florida to go trick-or-treating.

The city was ranked the 10th-safest place to live in the United States, according to Morgan Quitno Press, a private research and publishing company based in Kansas.

Brick Township, N.J., was ranked the safest in the country.

The rankings are based on 2005 statistics that were released by the FBI in September.

The statistics were broken down into six crime categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft.

Coral Springs in Northwest Broward measures 24 square miles and has a population of 130,000. Crime, including sex offenses and robbery, was down 17 percent in 2005 from the year before.

”We are not going to sit here and pat ourselves on the back,” Coral Springs police spokesman Rich Nicorvo said. “Crime rates are very fickle. There could be a pendulum shift tomorrow.”

Vice Mayor Roy Gold attributed the city’s safe streets to the advisory boards and their business plan, which highlight traffic and safety as priorities.

”It’s great news,” Gold said. “This new national ranking is No. 1 in the state of Florida for safety.”

According to Coral Springs police, there were no murders in 2004 or 2005. Sex offenses were down 60 percent, from 38 in 2004 to 15 in 2005. There were 80 robberies in 2004 and 58 in 2005; aggravated assaults plummeted from 201 in 2004 to 151 in 2005; burglaries dropped slightly to 424 from 425 in 2004; larceny was down to 1,975 in 2005 from 2,440 in 2004; and auto theft dropped to 243 in 2005 from 277 in 2004.

Saara Rumsky moved from New York to Coral Springs seeking better schools, but she was thrilled to hear about the safety ranking.

”I read after I moved that Coral Springs had one of the highest sex offender rates,” Rumsky said. “But I feel safe here.”

Other Broward cities also recognized among the safest or most dangerous cities in the country included Pembroke Pines, 59 out of 371; Davie, ranked 87; Sunrise, 89; Plantation, 94; Miramar, 141.

Other Broward and Miami-Dade County cities are ranked among the most dangerous cities to live. Miami Gardens was ranked the 33rd most dangerous city to live out of 371; Miami was ranked 45; Miami Beach, 53; Pompano Beach, 61; and Fort Lauderdale was ranked 101 out of all the ranked cities.