Safewise ‘could not rank safest cities in Florida’ for 2023 due to incomplete reports sent to FBI

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Safewise, a research company that bills itself as “online home security & safety experts,” said it does not have enough data to rank Florida’s Safest Cities of 2023 as part of its ninth annual Safest Cities report.

It’s due to the lack of data reported to the FBI from the state’s law enforcement agencies.

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Here’s what Safewise said about its methodology and how it will analyze crime in Florida in lieu of the reports:

“SafeWise uses the most recent FBI crime data to determine the safest cities in each state. As of publication, the most recent FBI crime data available is for crimes reported in 2021.

“In the most recent reporting year, only 2 of 757 Florida law enforcement agencies submitted complete reports to the FBI—that’s fewer than 1% of agencies in the state. Due to the small number of agencies reporting on 2021 crime statistics, we could not rank the safest cities in Florida this year. In lieu of our traditional ranking, we are working on a look at crime trends in specific cities across the state. Those findings will be released later this year.”

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Here’s what Safewise said it heard from Floridians about how they feel about safety:

“Florida is among the most concerned states in the country, but its most recent (2020) crime rates came in below nationwide rates for both violent and property crime. Despite lower-than-average crime rates, just 4 in 10 Floridians tell us they feel safe in The Sunshine State, and 6 in 10 say they’re worried about their safety on a daily basis.”

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An analysis from MoneyGeek in January, which ranked the safest cities and towns in America, had the same issue with a lack of reported data from Florida as well.

MoneyGeek said, “Unfortunately, we could not access data from Florida and build out a cohesive list because only two law enforcement agencies in the state (out of 757 total) reported crime data to the FBI for 2021. All of the reporting the FBI receives for this purpose is based on what local agencies voluntarily give them.”

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