Brick ranked safest city in America Brick moves up four spots to claim 'safest' title BY COLLEEN LUTOLF Staff Writer What's it like to live in the safest city in America?Brick residents should know. They're living in it, according to a national crime statistics publishing company. After eight consecutive years of being ranked by Lawrence, Kan.-based Morgan Quinto Press as one of the top five safest cities in America, Brick Township has finally reached the top spot. "We're very honored and very pleased by this latest designation," said Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli. "It's been a top priority of ours, public safety and appropriating money for a highly professional, well-trained, well-equipped police department." "Another point I think is important is this is a community that cares for one another," Scarpelli added. "The police department cannot take all the credit for this," Police Chief Ronald Dougard said. "Let's face it, our schools, our recreation department, Little League and Pop Warner, we cooperate with one another. The mayor and council have been very generous to us in addressing our equipment needs. Every citizen in Brick deserves a pat on the back." For the past 13 years Morgan Quinto has annually published the City Crime Rankings reference book of crime statistics and rankings. The Morgan Quinto Safest City Award bases its rankings on six basic crime categories: murder, rape, robbery aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft. Morgan Quinto compiles its rankings with crime data supplied to the FBI. A total 371 cities with populations 75,000 and over reported their 2005 statistics. Between 2004 and 2005, Brick's population increased by fewer than 100 people, according to Uniform Crime Report statistics submitted by Brick police. But as Morgan Quinto President Scott Morgan told the Bulletin last year, his company's rankings are "clearly nothing more meaningful than a water cooler story. If we got into the business of preselecting comparable cities, we would never do anything. Communities find a benchmarking city they view as comparable and see how they do. That's where [the ranking] will get more meaningful." Brick ranked as the fifth safest city in America last year, but Dougard said police did nothing different this year to earn the higher ranking. "I don't know what happened to the other towns," he said. "A lot of this is by chance. We read gloom and doom in the newspapers, but we're still in fairly good economic times." "We think luck is when hard work and preparation meet opportunity," Police Capt. Doug Kinney said. "When you consider the hard work that goes into the selection process and training program that prepares our officers for their work and the fact we have the opportunity to work with our community the results are always good." Last year, Newton, Mass., ranked No. 1. That town was ranked fourth safest by Morgan Quinto this year. Another New Jersey city, Camden, was ranked last year as the most dangerous U.S. city. Camden now ranked fourth in that category. St. Louis, Mo., has now been hexed with that title. So what does the criminal landscape look like in America's safest city? Brick police reported no murders or rapes in 2005 and the number of violent crimes in town dropped from 100 in 2004 to 44 in 2005, according to the 2005 State Police Uniform Crime Report (UCR). Brick police reported six robberies, 38 aggravated assaults, 192 burglaries, 1,103 cases of larceny, 46 motor vehicle thefts, two cases of arson, and 774 reports of domestic violence in 2005, according to the 2005 UCR. Larceny was the only category that saw a rise in numbers - from 999 cases in 2004 to 1,103 in 2005. The burglary category showed the most dramatic decrease, with 273 reported in 2004. Last year, police reported 192 burglaries.