Flint, Detroit, and Saginaw rank in the top 10 of America's most dangerous cities, according to a report published by the National Council for Home Safety and Security.
Flint ranked fifth with a rate of 2,109 violent crimes per 100,000 people. Detroit followed its neighbor to the north at No. 6 with a rate of 2,059. Saginaw ranked seventh with a rate of 2,021, in the Top 100 Most Dangerous Cities in America, 2018. The study was published on Alarm.org, the website for the Washington, D.C.-based trade group.
When accounting only for cities with at least 100,000 residents within the "Worst 100," Flint was ranked as the most dangerous, and Detroit followed in second.
The report described Flint as a city "hit particularly hard in the last couple decades of the 20th Century in the wake of large auto companies relocating their factories" and "suffering from a yet-to-be-resolved water crisis."
"Flint’s problem with contaminated water further underscores how cities with violent crime epidemics also face a situation where the basic needs that many other communities take for granted are not met," the report states.
East St. Louis, Ill., with a population of about 27,000, ranked as the overall most dangerous city in the United States with 4,888 violent crimes per 100,000 people, according to the study.
According to the website, the Alarm.org study analyzed data from 3,482 municipalities across the country and consulted the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting database. The group used crime reports from 2010 to 2014.
Contact Hasan Dudar at hdudar@freepress.com.
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