With a rate of 6.1 violent crimes per 10,000 residents, Business Insider ranks Broken Arrow ninth on a list of cities with the lowest crime rates.
Broken Arrow Police Chief Brandon Berryhill thinks there are a couple factors at play.
"Crime prevention has a lot to do with hardening the target: locking your doors, keeping lights on at night in dark areas, watching out for your neighbors. The other part of that is as we train officers, we have to make sure we instill that mindset of customer service and citizen engagement," Berryhill said.
Berryhill said BAPD's efforts to engage citizens include school resource officers and citizen police academies.
"This next year we’re going to have a citizen academy for those that don’t speak English so we can make sure that we have inroads into those segments that don’t speak English so we can develop that trust early," Berryhill said.
"I’d like to say that we catch every burglar crawling out the window, but normally someone calls us and tells us what’s going on. And if we don’t have the trust and the support of the community, that call never comes in," Berryhill said.
The lowest rate on Business Insider’s list is Irvine, California’s of 3.2 per 10,000 residents. Rankings are based on FBI crime statistics from cities with more than 100-thousand residents.
The Brennan Center for Justice reports crime rates nationwide remain at or near historic lows.
