Allen's the Ninth Safest City in U.S. Dallas? Um. Um. Well, You See...

Yup, says so right here on CQ Press' 2008 City Crime Rate Rankings: The fine, fair city of Allen's a Top 10'er when it comes to safety among 385 cities in the country -- and not far below, why, you'll find the likes of Frisco (at No. 16) and Plano...

By Robert Wilonsky

November 25, 2008

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Yup, says so right here on CQ Press' 2008 City Crime Rate Rankings: The fine, fair city of Allen's a Top 10'er when it comes to safety among 385 cities in the country -- and not far below, why, you'll find the likes of Frisco (at No. 16) and Plano (No. 51) and McKinney (No. 60) and Carrollton (No. 72) and even RIchardson (still in the Top 100). But Dallas, well, we're ... lessee ... 33 spots above last-place New Orleans! And still better than Flint, Oakland and Chicago, so take that.

As for how CQ Press compiled the list, which it does every year, here's a brief summation of its methodology: "The crimes tracked by the UCR [Uniform Crime Reporting] Program include violent crimes of murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault and property crimes of burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft, also called 'Crime Index' offenses; the index is simply the total of the seven main offense categories." Which is how the FBI used to tally its crime stats for cities, till, as CQ Press notes, the feds began insisting the UCR wasn't completely reliable or accurate. Only, it hasn't come up with anything better; hence, this list. --Robert Wilonsky

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