Crime State – where we stand

FBI statistics show violent crime to be on the decline in small cities (pop. 50,000-99,000), decreasing 3.1% from 2010 to 2011, with Niagara Falls lagging slightly behind for the same period.

For those living in the city, however, high profile, vicious crimes do not portend well for the future.

According to the NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services, Niagara Falls accounted for over 70% of all violent crimes reported in Niagara County for 2011.

And 2012 didn’t bring much of a reprieve as the city witnessed a two year old being shot in the face, a five year old little girl senselessly murdered and stuffed in a garbage can, and a young mother mutilated and dismembered.

Anecdotal reports by residents of shots fired are becoming almost a daily occurrence on social media sites. On top of that, one of the hardest hit areas by crime is the city’s downtown corridor, where tourists routinely report being victims of theft and property damage creating an unwelcoming atmosphere for tourism.

With a perpetually depressed local economy, a decreasing population and increasing levels of poverty, Niagara Falls has one of the highest rates of crime in the nation, and is safer than only 3% of all other cities in the United States, according to FBI statistics and s analyzed by CityRating.com.

Niagara Falls ranks 51st nationwide as the most crime-ridden city in the country.

The city's violent crime rate for Niagara Falls in 2011 was almost double the national crime rate.

Your chances of being murdered, raped, assaulted or robbed are higher in Niagara Falls than in Newark or Paterson, N.J.; Youngstown, Ohio; Kansas City, Mo.; Chicago or Houston.