Survey of Safest States in America Makes New York Look Really Dumb
What the heck did we do?
WalletHub claims they have cracked the formula to determine the safest states in the country.
While this was great news for New England, which dominated the list - the same can't be said about New York.
Murders, Kidnappings and Crime, Oh My!
WalletHub compared the 50 states across 52 key safety indicators, including assaults, climate disasters, terror attacks, DUI incidents, occupational hazards, and unemployment rates.
From there, the data was crunched into five different "safety" categories.
States earned their score based on their personal and residential safety, financial safety, road safety, workplace safety, and emergency preparedness.
Vermont cleaned up with a first place finish, followed by Maine and New Hampshire making up the top three.
Next was Utah, strangely, but then the spotlight went right back to New England with Massachusetts and Connecticut respectively finishing in fifth and sixth place.
Rhode Island placed ninth overall.
All enjoyed favorable markers such as having the fewest number of assaults per capita low bullying rates, fewest driver fatalities, and smallest share of uninsured populations.
As for New York, we didn't perform so hot.
Rainy Day Funds, Climate Disasters and More
New York shocked with a 26th place finish on this new roundup and earned terrible scores in several categories.
For example, the Empire State was 20th in having the highest number of assaults per capita, and also performed poorly in categories like job security, murders, bullying, number of sex offenders and climate disasters.
There were three categories that New York did well: 8th lowest share of uninsured populations, 11th bst for fewest occupational injuries per 100,000 full-time workers, and third best for law enforcement employees per capita.
Professor Scott Phillips, who is part of SUNY Buffalo State's Criminal Justice Department, spoke about what New York can do to improve its showing.
States can support training grants [for law enforcement officers]. But they should also promote police–practitioner partnerships. Police agencies should be encouraged to work with colleges, whether criminal justice, social work, or health and wellness departments, to learn about evidence-based practices that can improve lives and reduce crime. States and local leaders should actively encourage these partnerships via research or training grants.
What do you think? Does New York deserve all the hate-orade or was this blind, preferential treatment to those snobs from New England.
(Author's Note: I'm from Connecticut. I am more than happy to insult my people.)
In the end, here's hoping New York gets its act together or we'll continue sinking like a stone in the ratings.
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Gallery Credit: Dave Wheeler
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