Oakland Twp. ranks fourth

By Jim Newell

Review Editor

Orion Township is ranked as one of the safest communities in Michigan, according to a new report out from SafeWise, an independent website that researches security issues and solutions.

Orion Township ranked as the 27th Safest City in Michigan in 2021.

“We use the most up-to-date FBI crime data as the backbone of our reports. This means we rely on information that cities across the country report through the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program,” said Rebecca Edwards, security expert, safety and tech reporter for SafeWise.

“When you drill down into the data, we continue to be one of the safest communities (in Michigan). When you drill down into the data it’s mostly smaller communities that are above us so I think with a population our size we are, if not the safest, continue to be one of the safest in the state of Michigan,” Orion Township Supervisor Chris Barnett said during the board of trustees meeting on Monday.

“The ‘safest’ cities rankings are intended to highlight cities with low crime rates and ignite conversation and action around how to make all cities and communities safer,” Edwards said. “Our rankings are based on both violent and property crime numbers. We looked at the number of reported violent crimes (aggravated assault, murder, rape, and robbery) in each city and the number of reported property crimes (burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft). Arson is excluded from the FBI’s property crime rates, so we excluded it as well.”

According to the SafeWise analysis of reported violent crimes and property crimes, Orion Township has seen a slight increase of violent crime rates from 2019 to 2021, and a decrease in property crime rates over that period.

The violent crimes rate analysis lists a rate of 0.7 in 2021, 0.6 in 2020 and 0.3 in 2019. The property crimes rate is reported as 4.7 in 2021, 5.5 in 2020 and 6.9 in 2019.

Numbers were based on a population of 36,878 at the time of the study and rates were calculated per 1,000 people in a city.

“To level the playing field, we calculated the rate of crimes per 1,000 people in each city. This makes it easier to directly compare the likelihood of these crimes occurring in cities with vastly different populations,” Edwards said.

SafeWise previously ranked Orion Township as the 79th safest city in America, in its 2019 100 Safest Cities in America report.

Oakland Township

Oakland Township was ranked as the fourth safest city in Michigan in the SafeWise study, based on a population of 19,649.

Oakland Township’s violent crime rate fell each of the last three years from 0.4 in 2019 to 0.2 in 2020 to 0.1 in 2021. Property crime rates also fell from 3.0 in 2019 to 1.5 in 2020 with a slight uptick to 1.9 in 2021.

Oakland Township was also ranked as the fourth safest city in America in the 100 Safest Cities in America for 2021 report.

For more on the Michigan Safest Cities rankings, visit: www.safewise.com/blog/safest-cities-michigan/#list.

This year and last year, Michigan had a higher violent crime rate than the United States average while also keeping a lower property crime than the country at large. Among all 50 states, Michigan had the thirteenth-highest violent crime rate and the fourteenth-lowest property crime rate, according to SafeWise

The violent crime rate in Michigan dropped from 4.5 per 1,000 people to 4.4 while property crime declined from 16.5 per 1,000 to 15.9.