Maryland’s safest cities of 2019 have been released, according to the most recent FBI Uniform Crime Report Statistics. The report includes a survey of 7,639 Maryland cities and towns with populations ranging from 7,639 to 4,007,147, although the report eliminated any cities that failed to submit a complete crime report to the FBI and removed cities with populations under 10,000.

To compile the list of safest cities, the National Council for Home Safety and Security computed the total number of crimes reported by each city by adding violent crimes (defined by the FBI by four offenses, murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) and property crimes (including burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson). Cities were then rated using the population of the city, and a crime rate was created as the number of crimes per 1,000 population. They transformed the total crime rate variable so that the skewness was reduced, then normalized so the final number became a score between 0 and 1.

Finally, they computed a new variable called Police Adequacy (TotalCrimes/Number of police employees) — the smaller the policy adequacy statistic, the safer the city — transformed and normalized this police adequacy variable, resulting in a score between 0 and 1, and combined the two scores to create a safety score for each city. 

Top 10 Safest Cities in Maryland

According to the National Council for Home Safety and Security’s 2019 report. 

1. Ocean Pines
2. Havre de Grace
3. Aberdeen
4. Bel Air
5. Annapolis
6. Takoma Park
7. Easton
8. Frederick
9. Bowie 
10. Hagerstown

View the full list here. 

Maryland Crime Statistics at a Glance

Compared to other states, Maryland’s crime statistics are relatively high. Averages indicate:

• It’s the 35^th safest state for property crime (where 1^st = lowest crime)

• Maryland’s level of violent crime is approaching double the national average (ratio=1.82) with 6.30 crimes per 1,000 against the national average of 3.47. This makes it the 41^st safest state in violent crime terms.

• The state’s property crime levels are slightly below national averages, being 33.08 per 1,000 compared to the national average of 40.43 – giving a ratio of 0.82.