A total of eight counties in New York appeared on the 2024 Safest Communities in America list by U.S. News & World Report, released on Tuesday, Aug. 6.
The New York counties to appear on the list include:
- Nassau County, which ranked No. 1;
- Rockland County, which ranked No. 2;
- Westchester County, which ranked No. 6;
- Putnam County, which ranked No. 8;
- Queens County, which ranked No. 20;
- Suffolk County, which ranked No. 22;
- Kings County, which ranked No. 25.
The rankings were determined by scoring communities on a 100-point scale tied to their performance relative to one another across metrics in areas such as crime, injuries, and public safety capacity.
Some of these individual metrics included violent and property crime rates; population share in proximity to emergency facilities; spending on health and emergency services; and vehicle crash fatality rate.
For instance, Nassau County earned an overall public safety score of 100/100, with the organization citing a low violent crime rate and high per capita spending on health and emergency services as evidence.
In response to the rankings, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said she was "incredibly pleased," with the results.
"This news, coupled with the double-digit reductions in crime we have seen in Nassau County this year, are a testament to the tremendous work of our law enforcement partners and the dedicated attorneys in the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office who are singularly focused on protecting our communities," Donnelly said.
Click here to view the full "Safest Communities" rankings by U.S. News & World Report.
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