Thanks to Dyess Air Force Base and our area colleges, Abilene experiences quite a few newcomers on a daily basis. Those newcomers have questions, like "Is Abilene a safe place to live?".

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As someone who has lived here for a few decades, I'd like to think I know the ins and outs of Abilene. Well, after a little research into how safe our city is, maybe I don't know as much as I thought.

As a matter of fact, back in 2015, the FBI claimed that (according to crime statistics) Abilene was in the top 10 of the most dangerous cities in Texas. Obviously, our police chief, at the time, scoffed at that claim, but nonetheless, the stats are there.

Factor in the recent bank robbery and murders and one has to pause when considering how safe Abilene really is, so I took to the interwebs for a little research.

What factors are used to determine how safe the city is?

I've found that most statisticians use violent crime, property crime, and 'other' crime when analyzing the safety of a particular town or city.

So, is Abilene a safe place to live?

Well, NeighborhoodScout.com has Abilene's crime index at 20% while CrimeGrade.org has it at 10%, which means Abilene is safer than 20% of the U.S. population and 10% of the U.S. population, respectively.

Just based on the crime index, you'd think it's not a real safe place to live.

What about violent crime?

According to NeighborhoodScout.com,

From our analysis, we discovered that violent crime in Abilene occurs at a rate higher than in most communities of all population sizes in America. The chance that a person will become a victim of a violent crime in Abilene; such as armed robbery, aggravated assault, rape or murder; is 1 in 244. This equates to a rate of 4 per one thousand inhabitants.

And according to CrimeGrade.org,

Crime Grade's violent crime map shows areas where violent crime per person is highest, weighted by the type and severity of the crime. The D grade means the rate of violent crime is higher than the average US city. Abilene is in the 19th percentile for safety, meaning 81% of cities are safer and 19% of cities are more dangerous.

Both websites reflect the impression that the south side of the city is the safest and both, also, state that the north and east sides are the worst for crime.

Even though the stats don't lie, Abilene is still a pretty safe place to live, at least in my opinion. You just need to make sure you're living in the right neighborhood/area of town. Then again, that's the way it is in most cities, right?

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