“Newton has an outstanding record when it comes to fighting crime, “said Scott Morgan, President of Morgan Quitno Press. “It reported no murders and boasts some of the lowest rates among cities for rape, robbery and motor vehicle theft.”

The Morgan Quitno Safest City Award is based on a city’s rate for six basic crime categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft. All cities of 75,000+ populations that reported crime data to the FBI for the six crime categories were included in the rankings. In this year’s survey, 354 cities were considered for the award. Final 2003 statistics, released by the FBI on October 25, 2004, were used to determine the rankings.

Joining Newton at the top of the Safest City rankings are Brick Township, NJ; last year’s winner, Amherst, NY; Mission Viejo, CA; and Clarkstown, NY.

At the opposite end of the Morgan Quitno crime scale, Camden, New Jersey ranks as the nation’s most dangerous city. While Camden has always ranked among the 10 most dangerous cities in Morgan Quitno’s rankings, this is the first year that Camden has been named the most dangerous city. Camden is joined at the bottom of the crime rankings by (in ascending order) Detroit, MI; Atlanta, GA; St. Louis, MO and Gary, IN.

In addition to ranking the safety of cities, Morgan Quitno Press also examined crime in metropolitan areas. In those rankings, Appleton, WI was this year’s Safest Metropolitan Area. The Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, MI metropolitan division ranked as the most dangerous.

The findings of the 11th annual Safest City and Metropolitan Area Awards are featured in City Crime Rankings 11th Edition, an annual reference book from Morgan Quitno Press. The newly updated edition of this volume will be available December 13th. The Safest City and Metropolitan Area rankings are one of six Morgan Quitno Awards announced annually by the company. These other annual announcements designate the nation’s Most Livable State (a state quality of life survey); the Healthiest State (a survey of state health care); the Safest and Most Dangerous States (a state crime survey); the Smartest State (a state education survey) and the Most Improved State (a survey of state trends.)

Additional information regarding the methodology and results of the eleventh annual Safest City and Metropolitan Area Awards is available at www.morganquitno.com.  The website provides methodology and rankings of the top and bottom 25 cities. A full report featuring information for all 354 cities is available online for $4.99.