NO. 14

League City ranks high on safest places to live list

 

By Myrian Orea

Galveston County Daily News

Dec 28, 2023

 

 

LEAGUE CITY, Texas -- Low crime rates and high quality of life landed League City among the top 15 safest U.S. cities in 2023, according to a data analyzing website.

After analyzing the FBI’s recent crime reports, HomeSnacks, a website billing itself as a suppler of data-driven insights into cities and neighborhoods, earlier this month placed League City as the 10th safest in the nation out of the 302 ranked cities.

As of Dec. 21, League City ranked No. 14 after 10 more cities were added to the ranking, according to the website.

“I am proud to announce League City has been ranked as one of the safest cities in America,” John Baumgartner, city manager, said in an email to city residents earlier this month. “In the past several years, randomly sampled citizen surveys done by a third party have shown that 90 percent of our residents are very satisfied with the quality of our police services.”

Every two years, the city commissions ETC Institute, a market research firm for state and local governments, to administer the Citizen Satisfaction Survey.

Based on 2021 survey results, the city found that about 90 percent of its residents report being “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the overall quality of life in the city and 96 percent said League City is an “excellent” or “good” place to live, which is higher than the national average of 73 percent, according to the institute.

The city uses survey results to help inform government officials’ decision-making regarding city services, officials said.

In 2021, the institute awarded League City the “Leading the Way Award,” placing the city in the top 10 percent of all local governments regarding its delivery of services to residents, according to the city website.

The results of the 2023 survey will be presented to council at a workshop meeting on Feb. 27, Sarah Osborne, director of communications and community engagement, said.

About 89 percent of residents report being “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the quality of police service, according to the survey.

“Our agency follows an analytical approach to combat crime,” Police Chief Clifford Woitena said. “Whenever we observe an increase in criminal activity or a surge in particular types of crimes, we focus our attention and resources on those areas or trends. Our team performs uniformed personnel or plain-clothes operations to prevent the issue from spreading. Nevertheless, this is just a part of our strategy.”

This year, there were 951 cases of violent crime in the city and it has remained steady in the mid-900s since 2015, according to the department’s crime statistics.

Based on the FBI’s crime explorer data released in October 2023, HomeSnacks found that League City’s overall crime rate is 40.7 percent below the national average.

“We are fortunate to have a close and positive relationship with the community we serve, and as a result, our citizens actively participate in the policing of their neighborhoods,” Woitena said. “They are more aware of any peculiarities in their areas than anyone else, and their cooperation with our department is priceless in maintaining law and order. If our neighbors and friends feel secure in their neighborhoods, parks, and shopping centers, then we are doing our job.”