Mayor Gray Claims that Lexington is the safest city of its size in the country (Lexington-Fayette: crime rate)

[Bureaucat]

He made that statement during a presser today that calls for a budget with large increases in public safety expenditures.

Not sure how accurate that statement is, but I would be interested in any comments or data some readers might have. I've lived in Lexington since the mid-70's, and it was definitely safer, albeit smaller, back then. How Lexington-Fayette currently compares with similar sized communities, I don't know.

"Lexington is one of the safest communities in America. It is the safest city of its size in America, but we have to stay vigilant about it. We have to stay on point all the time. This is one of our challenges, and this is why we are making this significant commitment in this year's budget," Mayor Gray said.

Mayor's budget includes biggest investment in public safety in decades

[marino760]

Well, not sure about most other cities it's size but Pittsburgh PA has a population of about 304,000 and has an overall crime rate lower than Lexington.
I occasionally check crime rates in various Kentucky cities since I'm planning to move there.

[Dave dave]

While Mayor Gray is correct, the reason has to due with county inclusion. Lexington
includes the entire county. If you did a similar thing across the US we would probably fall in the middle of crime results for cities that size.