McAllen now ranks sixth in Safest Cities in the United States according to SmartAsset.com. The financial website analyzes a core set of common safety factors to identify and rank the safest cities in America, looking at data from 200 of the largest cities.

Since the last study, crime in the United States has continued its upward trend. In McAllen, however, crime decreases continued as the city moved up three spots from 2021 from a nine ranking.

“I am so proud of our city. These accomplishments are possible only when members of our community, our McAllen City Commission and our employees dedicate themselves to make our community safe,” said McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos. “We are especially proud of the brave, hardworking McAllen police officers who, not only protect and serve our community and its residents on a daily basis, but also, have kept our crime rate dropping each year to the lowest it has ever been in the past 37 years.”

Safety is one of the top concerns for many families when picking a place to live.

“McAllen’s continued ranking as a safe city by various websites, as well as the F.B.I.’s own Uniform Crime Report of the crime rate in McAllen, is, in sharp contrast to rhetoric that tends to paint all border cities as unsafe communities,” said Villalobos.

Safety By The Numbers

Determining the rankings were metrics in violent crime, property crime, vehicular mortality rate, drug poisoning mortality rate and the percentage of the population engaging in excessive drinking. To find the final rankings, SmartAsset.com first ranked each city in each metric. Then, they found the average ranking for every city, giving each metric an equal weight. From there, they ranked the cities based on their average ranking, giving an index score of 100 to the top city and an index score of 0 to the bottom city. 

According to SmartAsset.com, McAllen has the third-lowest violent crime rate, with 85 for every 100,000 residents. McAllen has the lowest drug poisoning mortality rate, with only 3.8 drug deaths for every 100,000 residents. While it ranked high in this study for vehicular mortality rate, with 10.2 deaths for every 100,000, it was the lowest for percentage of population engaging in excessive drinking.

McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez credits the low crime rate to the unwavering support of the McAllen community; its elected officials, and the dedicated work of all McAllen police officers and support personnel.

“Our community strives to prevent crime, to promote public safety and to participate in the investigation of crime when it does occur.  At the end of 2021, the City of McAllen recorded its 12th consecutive annual crime reduction and its lowest crime rate in 37 years,” said Rodriguez. “To this end, the McAllen Police Department expresses sincere appreciation to all members of our community and to the McAllen City Commission for their diligence and dedication to making public safety the top priority. The McAllen Police Department administration expresses special thanks to the men and women of the McAllen Police Department for their hard work and successful outcomes.”

Joining McAllen on the list are the cities is Brownsville at 16.