Lewiston-Auburn trails Bangor and Portland in terms of safety, but all three metropolitan areas rank high nationally.

The Detroit-Livonia-Deerborn, Mich., area is the nation’s most dangerous metropolitan region with a rank of 320.

The findings are based on a company’s yearly ranking that’s pegged to crime statistics.

Bangor was ranked as the nation’s No. 6 safest metropolitan area. Portland was ranked No. 17, and the Twin Cities came in at No. 51.

Camden, N.J., has become the nation’s most dangerous city. Camden, which was ranked third last year, took the dubious honor from Detroit, which fell to second in this year’s ranking, followed by Atlanta, St. Louis and Gary, Ind.

Newton, Mass., rated as the safest city, followed by Brick Township, N.J., Amherst, N.Y., Mission Viejo, Calif. and Clarkstown, N.Y.

The rankings, which will be released today by Morgan Quitno Press’s “City Crime Rankings,” an annual reference book of crime statistics to be published next month. Company president Scott Morgan told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in its Sunday edition he had been unaware that St. Louis police omitted 5,760 crimes from their 2003 crime data. Provided with the correct data, Morgan found that St. Louis would have switched places with Atlanta.

The rankings looked at the rate for six crime categories: Murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft. It compares 350 cities with populations of 75,000 or more that reported crime data to the FBI.

Final 2003 statistics, released by the FBI in October, were used to determine the rankings.

Sun Journal staff writer Doug Fletcher contributed to this report.