A national crime ranking that places the Lewiston-Auburn area below Bangor and Portland on a list of safe cities is misleading, according to local police.

The survey of six crime statistics published by Morgan Quitno Press named the Lewiston-Auburn metropolitan area the 28th safest in the nation, out of 344 areas surveyed.

“We’re flattered we came out that high (nationally),” said Lewiston Police Chief Bill Welch.

But the ranking puts the Lewiston-Auburn area, which includes much of Androscoggin County, at the low end of major metropolitan areas in Maine. The Bangor area was ranked third and the Portland area, 23rd.

“Just looking at it statistically, I’m not sure how we came out the lowest in the state,” Welch said. FBI statistics for Lewiston and Auburn show declining crime rates.

“Whether you compare us to Bangor alone, or Portland, both are actually ranked higher (in crime) than we are,” Welch said.

According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting ranking, Portland had 3,237 total instances of crime in 2005. Bangor had 1,633.

Lewiston had 1,341 and Auburn had 838.

Portland far outpaced other Maine cities in violent crimes, with 267 instances. Lewiston had 91 instances, Bangor 65 and Auburn 17.

But the Morgan Quitno Press survey was not a straight-up comparison of cities. The designated Bangor area included all of Penobscot County. The Portland area included Cumberland, Sagadahoc and York Counties.

“They compared a larger area with more rural areas in one melting pot to 60 square miles of city,” said Andy Robitaille, information support analyst for the Lewiston Police Department.

That’s true, said Scott Morgan, spokesman for the Kansas-based Morgan Quitno Press.

“That’s just how the numbers are reported,” he said. The ranking uses the same FBI statistics combined to create a ranking. When each city is compared by itself, Lewiston and Auburn do far better than Portland, he said.

Lewiston-Auburn did improve its individual score, according to the survey. It ranked 36 out of 330 in 2005 and 51 out of 320 in 2004.

Bangor consistently ranks in the top 10, according to the survey. It was ranked the safest municipal area in the nation in 2004.