Most Dangerous US Cities May Not Be as Crime-Ridden as the Numbers Suggest

SWAT Team members prepare for the exercise on Oct. 27, 2009. Oregon Department of Transportation/CC BY 2.0

The data is in: The most dangerous city in the United States is... Tukwila, Washington.

Really? 

The second is... Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. And third is Emeryville, California. Where?

Apparently, there’s more to the story.

The list of “The 30 Most Dangerous Cities in America — 2016” was created by SafeWise.com, a website providing home safety and security news, tips, and product reviews.

Here’s how SafeWise created the list, according to its blog post:

“To identify the 30 most dangerous cities in America, we reviewed the most recent FBI Crime Report statistics, along with population data. We eliminated all cities with fewer than 10,000 residents in 2014 as well as any cities that failed to submit a complete crime report to the FBI.”

Let’s look at the top five on the list:

1. Tukwila, Washington

The Westfield Southcenter shopping mall is in the foreground with the residential part of Tukwila, Wash., in the back. Screenshot of Google Earth