BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

CANTON – The village of Canton was recently named the 17th safest “city” in New York State by independent watchdog website, SafeWise.

SafeWise is an independent review site, focusing on home and personal security issues, products and statistics.

Its 20 Safest Cities of 2019 rankings were developed from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting program numbers from 2017. Their survey only studied towns above the statewide median population threshold, SafeWise website said.

Canton with a population of 6,557 and a median income of $54,115 featured only 0.15 reported violent crimes per 1,000 residents. The village’s reported property crimes per 1,000 residents numbered 3.20.

Reported violent crime includes aggravated assault, murder, rape, and robbery. Reported property crime includes burglary, arson, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft.

Canton’s numbers compared favorably with the statewide numbers of reported violent crimes of 4.46 per 1,000 and the national rate of 4.49 per 1,000, SafeWise said.

Statewide property crime rates were 16.13 per 1,000 and nationwide the numbers were even higher at 27.11 incidents per 1,000 people.

SafeWise list does include other St. Lawrence County communities further back in the rankings.

The village of Potsdam, with a population 9,758, ranked 95th with 1.02 reported violent crimes per 1,000 of residents and 9.22 reported property crime incidents per 1,000.

Ogdensburg, with a population of 10,685, was accounted at 147th with 2.71 reported violent crimes per 1,000 residents and 35.66 reported property crimes per 1,000.

Watertown in neighboring Jefferson County ranked 165th on SafeWise’s rankings. The city, with a population of 25,746 featured 5.4 reported violent crimes per 1,000 city residents and 40.94 property damage crimes per 1,000.

To view the rankings online visit www.safewise.com/blog/safest-cities-new-york/.