What? Tukwila is second most dangerous city in the country?



TUKWILA, Wash. -- A list of "most dangerous cities in America" is out, and one Western Washington city is in the top two.

Tukwila is listed as the second most dangerous city in the United States, trailing only Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, according to SafeWise.com, a home security consultant group founded in May 2013.

The group said it issued the report with partial data gathered from the FBI. SafeWise said that for every 1,000 people in Tukwila, there were 8.29 violent crimes and 167.42 property crimes in 2013.

"Keep in mind," the report says, "the national average is 3.67 incidents of violent crime per 1,000 residents and 27.30 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents."

Jesse King, who has lived in Tukwila for the past six years, said the list is unnerving and doesn’t reflect the city he knows.

“It’s a wonderful city. You’ve got Starfire (soccer programs) engaged in the community, you got lots of activity going on, so I like Tukwila,” said King.

However, the city that doesn’t look so rosy in the newly released report from SafeWise.

The group says it uses FBI statistics on violent and property crimes for cities with a population of more than 10,000.

But Tukwila Communications / Government Relations Manager Rachel Bianchi said the report is skewed and there are other factors to consider.

“We’re a small city at night and we’re a big city during the day; at night we have 19,000 people here and during the day we have 150,000, and over the holidays we have up to 225,000 people a day,” said Bianchi.

Spokane also ranked 26th on the most dangerous city list.

The report does indicate some cities (Chicago, Detroit and Oakland), which have normally topped other lists, didn’t make the cut at all because the FBI didn’t receive complete crime data, which means those cities were removed from consideration.

For more details on the SafeWise report:

http://www.safewise.com/blog/the-30-most-dangerous-cities-in-america/