Signal Mountain among America's 'safest small towns'

photo Signal Mountain resident Ann Farmer runs along North Palisades Drive overlooking the Tennessee Valley.
photo Aerial view of Signal Mountain

Signal Mountain is ranked No. 10 on a real estate-focused website's list of the "Safest Small Towns in America."

Mayor Bill Lusk said he was excited by the news, but not surprised. He said the website, Movoto, previously ranked Signal Mountain as the best place to live in Tennessee, and Bloomberg has named it "one of the best places to raise a family."

"We are such a faith, family-centered community," Lusk said. "Our officers are out in the community a lot, and honestly I think the bad guys know that. We perhaps always had a reputation for having very good police coverage."

Lusk said the town has a great police staff, and community programs such as D.A.R.E. help educate children and teenagers about the dangers of certain illicit behaviors.

"We had a D.A.R.E. officer and made sure that kids had an opportunity to get to know their police force," Lusk said. "I think that helped a lot."

The ranking for the safest small towns was determined by examining 2012 data from the FBI Uniform Crime Report. The types of crimes examined were murder, rape, robbery and assault. From there, the crimes were divided into four categories: murders, violent crimes, property crimes and total crimes.

According to the findings, Signal Mountain had the ninth lowest total crime rate, giving residents a 1-in-110 chance of being victims of crime. Signal Mountain had no rapes, murders or robberies reported in 2012, and according to the report had the 15th-lowest violent crime rate on the total list.

Lusk said even though the rating is great news, he plans to keep up the work to make sure Signal Mountain stays as safe in the future as it is now. He also said he hopes the rating might help ward off crime.

"We hope that the bad guys out there take note of that and stay away," he said.

Contact staff writer Hannah Smith at hsmith@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6731.

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