(WTXL) — The National Council for Home Safety and Security (NCHSS) has released their annual rankings of the safest college campuses in America for 2019.
Colleges and universities in our area didn't come in high on the list. Valdosta State University brought in the rear at No. 396, Tallahassee Community College was ranked No. 265, and Florida A&M University was the highest ranking locally at No. 201, roughly coming in at the middle of the pack within the study.
Of the 490 colleges the study was done on, Florida State University didn't make the list.
The study's data was compiled from locally submitted police reports, FBI crime data, and other relevant information. Last year, FSU had the highest violent crime crime rate in any public college in the state, according to the same data used in this study. That FBI data can be found here.
However the FBI's Uniform Crime Report notes that, "Users should not rank locales because there are many factors that cause the nature and type of crime to vary from place to place. UCR statistics include only jurisdictional population figures along with reported crime, clearance, or arrest data." The FBI report says college crime is affected by the number of on-campus residents, accessibility of the campus to outsider visitors, and enrollment size.
In October 2018, when the 2017 UCR rankings came out, FSU's Chief of Police, David Perry, told us that urban campuses typically draw more incidents. More than 40,000 students were enrolled at FSU in 2017, with close to 500,000 visitors annually.
2018's UCR report has not yet been released, though you can view preliminary findings here.
The NCHSS says they determined these rankings by comparing law enforcement and FBI crime reports from 490 colleges, excluding colleges with student populations of less than 1,000 as well as colleges that lacked any of the necessary data. The council also omitted colleges that failed to submit their crime reports to the FBI.
To see the full list of rankings click here.
