Snoqualmie gets safest city nod

Ranks safest in state according to website’s matrix.

Snoqualmie was recently named safest city in Washington State by backgroundchecks.org.

The city took first place on the company’s 2019 safest cities to live in Washington list, which is based off of property crime and violent crime data.

Other cities on the list, in order from 2nd to 5th place, include Enumclaw, West Richland, Sunnyside and Oak Harbor.

Snoqualmie received a safety index score of 0.59.

Backgroundchecks.org says in the methodology section of its website that they used recent FBI crime statistics to rank the state’s cities. That data set contained 7,430 cities, which was narrowed down to 2,929 cities with a population smaller than 10,000.

They also explained how they used their math to create the safety index scores.

“We then calculated violent crime rates and property crime rates by dividing the crime numbers by the population to get rates per 1,000. We also calculated the ratio of law enforcement workers to per 1,000,” the website says. “These were weighted with -50 percent for the violent crime rate, -25 percent for the property crime rate, and +25 percent for the law enforcement rate. The resulting metric gave us the safety index score. The higher this number, the (safer) the city is.”

That website also states that Washington has a lower-than-average violent crime rate but high levels of property crime, such as automobile theft.

This recognition comes after other recent nods. Snoqualmie also was recognized as safest city in Washington by the National Council for Home Safety and Security as well as by SafeWise.

“We are pleased to be recognized by multiple organizations as one of the safest communities in Washington,” Police Chief Perry Phipps said in a press release. “Our belief and commitment to ‘No call too small’ combined with a community effort of residents and city personnel help keep our city a safe place to live, work and visit.”