Moapa Valley Progress
Residents of Mesquite have yet another reason to be proud of their hometown. The City was recently ranked as the #1 safest city in the state of Nevada for 2018 by SafeWise, an online safety resource that regularly releases “Safest City” reports across the country.
The 2018 Nevada report, just published by SafeWise, lists the five safest cities in Nevada with Mesquite at the top. The other cities listed, in the order of their rankings, included Henderson, Sparks, Elko and Reno.
Using data from the most recent FBI crime report, SafeWise builds its evaluations based on the number of violent crimes in each city including aggravated assault, murder, rape and robbery. The organization also factors in the number of property crimes reported such as burglary, arson, larcey-theft and motor vehicle theft.
Mesquite had a low ratio of violent crimes, only 6.5 percent of those reported. This put Mesquite with 83 percent less violent crime than the state average.
The SafeWise study also calculates the rate of crimes per 1,000 people in each city. This makes it easier to directly compare the likelihood of these crimes occuring in cities with vastly different populations, according to a SafeWise statement.
Mesquite had only 1.22 violent crimes per 1,000. This compared to 2.12 per 1,000 in the #2 Henderson; 4.47 per 1,000 for Sparks; 4.93 per 1,000 in Elko; and 7.02 per 1,000 in Reno.
Mesquite police chief Troy Tanner praised his department for their work in keeping crime rates low in the city. “Our police department is full of excellent officers who are proactively working every day and night protecting our community,” Tanner said. “I attribute our high solve rate to their dedication to each crime we investigate and call for service we respond to.”
Tanner also expressed appreciation to a supportive city government which had adequately funded the police department. “Our staffing levels allow us to quickly respond to crimes in progress or calls for service which in turn, makes it possible for the officers and detectives to quickly solve crimes,” Tanner said.
