Lewiston and Auburn are safer than nearly 300 other metropolitan areas in the nation.
The Twin Cities were ranked the 36th safest among 330 areas in a study released this week by the Morgan Quitno Press. Last year, Lewiston-Auburn was ranked No. 51 on the list.
The study, which looks at 2004 crime statistics gathered by the FBI, maintains that the Logan, Utah, metropolitan area is the nation’s safest. It landed a score of negative 75.27. Fond du Lac, Wisc., is second with a score of negative 72.50.
A negative score indicates a composite crime number below the national rate. A positive number is above the national crime rate.
Lewiston-Auburn had a score of negative 52.01.
Bangor ranked ninth with a score of negative 68.34. That’s a slip. It was ranked No. 6 a year ago.
Portland came in at No. 17 and a score of negative 61.98. Portland was ranked No. 17 last year, as well.
Metro areas with the worst scores are New Orleans, La., at No. 329 and a score of 97.10, and No. 330, Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, Mich., with a score of 143.40.
Morgan Quitno calculates its rates by studying the incidences of six crimes: Murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft.
It doesn’t include larceny and arson, two of the crimes also counted by the FBI in determining crime rates.
Scott Morgan, editor of Morgan Quitno, has said that larceny and arson aren’t included because they tend to be “the least well-reported crimes” and neither typically involves extreme violence to another person.
“If we factored those in we would get a completely different order,” Morgan has said.
Morgan Quitno’s rankings don’t necessarily jive with the way police view crimes. Last year, Phil Crowell, Auburn’s deputy police chief, picked a bone with the company’s report. He said the way Morgan Quitno compiles its report can be misleading.
The state’s 2004 Crime and Justice Data Book Annual Report appears to support Crowell’s contention. Index crimes reported in 2003 show that Portland easily outpaces other Maine cities. The Port City posted 3,278 major crimes that year, compared with 1,789 in Bangor and 1,409 in Lewiston.
The same report shows that five Maine cities – Portland, Bangor, Lewiston, Biddeford and South Portland – account for a third of all violent crime in the state. Portland, with 242 violent crimes, was three times higher than Lewiston, with 9 violent crimes. Robberies and aggravated assaults led the list of violence in Portland.
But the annual report also shows crime is soaring in some rural counties.
Franklin County saw 147 violent crimes per 100,000 population in 2003, a 138.2 percent increase over a five-year period.
Oxford County posted 112 violent crimes per 100,000 during the same period, a five-year increase of 91.6 percent.
Androscoggin County, meanwhile, posted 120 violent crimes, a 25.2 percent decline over five years.
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