MIDWEST CITY, Okla. – People often think suburbs are safer than big cities but a new study says that is not always the case.
In fact, it says one of the suburbs surrounding Oklahoma City is among the nation’s most dangerous.
According to new data released by the Movoto Real Estate Blog, Midwest City is the fourth most dangerous suburb in the country.
Researchers analyzed crime data for 120 suburbs across America that were taken from the FBI’s Crime Report.
They examined the number of murders, rapes, robberies, property crimes and total crimes.
Officials then compared them against the number of people who live there.
City officials and residents were shocked by the findings.
Joe Daugherty says, “They put us on a top ten in America?”
Connie Allison says, “It kind of made me stop and think like, did I hear that correctly?”
Dangerous is not the first thing that comes to mind when some residents think of Midwest City.
Chief of Police Brandon Clabes says, “So when someone does an internet search of Midwest City guess what pops up?”
One of the first results is this top ten list, claiming 1 in 17 people will be a victim of a crime in Midwest City.
Chief Clabes says, “When I first read the report I had a sickness in my stomach and I felt like I got sucker punched.”
Chief Clabes is questioning where the blog’s researchers are getting their numbers.
According to his statistics, in 2013 1 in every 60 people were a victim of a crime in Midwest City.
He says they’ve even widened that margin from years past.
In 2009 1 in every 50 people were a victim of a crime.
To him, they’ve made Midwest City safer.
Clabes thinks the entire community takes a hit from lists like these, from the police department to the chamber of commerce.
He says a simple Google search might deter someone from visiting, shopping or living here.
“People who live out of state that don’t know anything about our community will Google us and say, `Oh my gosh I’m not going to come to Midwest City because my life’s in jeopardy!’ Well that’s the furthest from the truth.”
In the past, the blog has ranked Midwest City on one of the safest cities in the state.
Midwest City’s Chamber of Commerce has been in contact with Movoto to question their findings on both lists.
Movoto has told them they are considering removing the city’s existence on the safe cities list.