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Tampa Bay barely cracks Florida's top 20 safest cities

 
Tampa Bay cities didn’t rank particularly highly among other Florida cities when it comes to safety, a recent study by SafeHome.org said. Pictured is the Tampa skyline in January. [MONICA HERNDON   |   Times]
Tampa Bay cities didn’t rank particularly highly among other Florida cities when it comes to safety, a recent study by SafeHome.org said. Pictured is the Tampa skyline in January. [MONICA HERNDON | Times]
Published April 16, 2019

Tampa Bay ranks highly in many areas — top vacation destinations, consecutive sunny days — but apparently not when it comes to safety.

A recent list by security system review site SafeHome.org ranked 54 Florida cities based on their crime statistics. Tampa ranked No. 19, while Clearwater came in at No. 32 and St. Petersburg brought up the rear at No. 50.

"On a national level, Florida proudly has one of the top 10 safest cities in the nation and more than 20 other cities in the top 500 safest cities in the nation," the ranking said.

Cities were scored based on the percentage of violent crimes, property crimes, whether property and violent crimes were trending upward or downward and the citizen to police officer ratio. The "safest" city was Weston, which also ranks among the top 5 percent of safe cities nationwide. Miami Beach came in last.

Contact Malena Carollo at mcarollo@tampabay.com or (727) 892-2249. Follow @malenacarollo.