Safety First? For City, It’s 117th

Harvard and MIT are redefining the meaning of “safety school.”

The Cambridge-Newton region ranks in the top decile of safest U.S. metropolitan areas—25th out of 344, according to a report released this week.

And the City of Cambridge, measured separately from other Middlesex County municipalities, finds itself ranked as the safest of the four Ivy League hometowns included in an accompanying survey of 371 American cities.

The results, compiled by the Morgan Quitno Press, a research firm based in Lawrence, Kan., place Cambridge—measured as a municipality—as the 117th safest city in the country, a marked improvement from its 185th place ranking last year.

Providence, R.I., home of Brown, and Philadelphia, where the University of Pennsylvania is located, ranked 282nd and 343rd, respectively. New York City, home of Columbia, fared slightly better, coming in at 145th.

Only cities with populations greater than 75,000 were ranked in the survey, though some cities of this size—including New Haven, Conn., which is home of Yale University and more than 120,000 residents—were not included in the list because of incomplete data.

The other three Ivy League towns—Hanover, N.H., Ithaca, N.Y., and Princeton, N.J.—were not included in the ranking because their populations were below 75,000.

Brick, N.J., claimed the title of America’s safest city, while St. Louis, Mo., found itself at the bottom of the heap as the country’s most dangerous city.

Some undergrads said that the survey results didn’t accord with their own perceptions. “I’m from New York City, presumably a very dangerous place, but I actually feel safer there than I do in Cambridge,” said Victoria J. Crutchfield ’10.

Jessica E. Becker ’09, a resident of Kirkland House, said that she feels less secure in Cambridge than she does in her hometown of Newton, which was ranked the fourth safest city on the list.

Harvard University Police Department spokesman Steven G. Catalano said yesterday that HUPD takes “many steps in order to educate the community about what precautions they should take in order to stay safe while traveling throughout campus.”

“In addition,” Catalano said, “we try to maintain a very visible uniformed presence on campus.”

For its most recent rankings, Morgan Quitno Press analyzed 2005 crime rate statistics in six basic categories—murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft—according to the president of the firm, Scott Morgan. Each type of crime was weighed equally in the final analysis. The statistics are from the F.B.I.’s annual Uniform Crime Report.

Morgan Quitno Press prints a series of annual reports rating states and metropolitan areas. Earlier last month, it bestowed its “Smartest State Award” upon Vermont. Massachusetts placed second.

Those rankings were based on 21 indicators, including school spending and standardized test scores. Arizona was ranked the least intelligent.

—Reed B. Rayman contributed to the reporting of this story.