Roselle Park 37th Safest City In NJ According To SafeWise Report

A new report published by SafeWise, a professional review and comparison website that specializes, according to its website (link), in providing information about home security systems, home security monitoring, and home security techniques, ranked Roselle Park as one the top 50 safest municipalities in New Jersey with a population of 10,000 or more (link to complete SafeWise report).

The borough was ranked 37th and – among the only five other municipalities in Union County – 2nd safest right below Berkeley Heights. Roselle Park ranked safer than Cranford, Scotch Plains, and Westfield.

The information was taken from 2013’s FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) violent and property crime statistics. SafeWise combined the Violent Crime statistics with Property Crime statistics for their final rankings. Using the FBI statistics from 2013, Roselle Park’s violent crime rate was 84% lower than that of the nation and 79% less than New Jersey’s violent crime average. Property crime in the borough was 72% lower than the national average and 59% less than the state’s combined mean.

A previous report by Value Penguin used the same data and had Roselle Park ranked 95th. The difference is that ValuePenguin adjusted its ranking to account for population fluctuation during the summer months for ‘beach towns’  (link to article).

Elli Bishop, spokeswoman for SafeWise, commented that the company analyzed crime statistics from Part 1 of the UCR that focuses on Violent Crimes – which consists of aggravated assault, forcible rape, murder, and robbery – as well as Property Crimes, which consists of arson, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft,” Ms. Bishop explained, “We then calculate the chances of these crimes happening out of a thousand in order to level the playing field for cities of varying populations.”

SafeWise’s methodology only ranked cities with a minimum population of 10,000 people.

“The Community Policing Unit has made a commitment to policing the area using mountain bikes so that they can cover areas that cars can’t reach, like parks and playgrounds, Ms. Bishop stated about Roselle Park’s ranking, “The officers have a great rapport with the community and the borough’s low crime rate is without a doubt a result of their consistent communication and their high level of visibility into the town’s happenings.”

In this ranking, Roselle Park’s violent crimes per 1,000 people was 44th lowest in violent crime while property crime ranking remained at 37th.

Roselle Park Police Chief Paul Morrison remarked on the report, “Bike patrols are useful in patrolling neighborhood areas and the officers are more accessible to the public in the neighborhood areas. Bike patrol officers also have a better and clearer view of areas in detecting criminal activity.  It has also been my goal as Chief to provide a more visible police department and have a greater police presence throughout the entire town.  The greater police presence that the officers of this department have created has certainly assistance in providing a safer community and has also reduced the crime in the town. This tactic is surely one of the main reasons violent crime and crime against property has been reduced, these officers have done an outstanding job in being visible and also responding to calls for assistance ,and crimes in progress in a very timely manner. I commend my officers for their hard work and I would also like to thank mayor and council who have been very supportive of the police department and that has been not only a great help to the police department, but also to all of the residents of Roselle Park.”

A sortable list of all 50 municipalities with the ability to filter and rank by alphabetical order, county, Violent Crime ranking, Property Crime ranking, and combined total is available below:

Information on 2014’s UCR for Roselle Park can be reviewed in a previous article (link).

Data obtained from “The 50 Safest Cities in New Jersey – 2015” by SafeWise (link).