Is Your Neighborhood Safe? 7 Tools to Help You Find Out

Safety is subjective. What you consider a safe neighborhood, someone else may not. For example, some may look for a home near a local police station so that help is always minutes away, while others would find that a terrifying neighborhood feature.

While reading this article, think about how you use neighborhood safety tools. Are you using them to build or divide your community? When you find problems, look for solutions. Remember that community safety comes from putting in work. 

Also, make sure you're not spreading disinformation, and be careful not to racially profile or stereotype people you don't recognize in your neighborhood.

Keep in mind many of these tools use crime statistics by address and don’t factor in a lot of things that make a neighborhood safe, so the results may be misleading. You don’t get a complete picture of how truly safe a neighborhood is. There are many things that can make a neighborhood safe:

• Good lighting at night
• Sidewalks and biking lanes
• A fire station nearby
• Fire hydrants that are close to homes
• Good schools
• Access to medical care
• Clean parks

And there are plenty of ways to make a neighborhood safer. Here are some neighborhood safety tips.

These tools have large crime-tracking components, but crime monitoring is just one piece of community safety. We were sure to include safety tools that can help create community-based safety networks too. Whether you're trying to track down a lost pet or solve missing-package mysteries, you have people on your side.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation Crime Data Explorer compiles crime reports from all over the country. While the tool doesn’t portray crime mapping by address, you can find crime data for your state, your city, or a location you might want to move to in the future. The data is divided by crime type, including violent crime rate, hate crime, property crime, and arrests.

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AreaVibes has crime maps, but it also generates neighborhood safety scores based on more than just crime.

AreaVibes assigns a neighborhood safety rating letter grade from F to A+ for each of seven livability factors: crime rate, amenities, cost of living, education, employment, housing, and user ratings. Then, it compares your area’s livability score to state and national averages.

AreaVibes’ custom search function sets it apart from similar tools, allowing you to sort locations by the seven livability factors. This can be helpful if you’re scouting for a new place to live to get a complete picture of just how safe an area is beyond crime statistics.

If crime is most important to you, AreaVibes is a great way to quickly and easily compare the crime activity in several cities. It breaks crimes down by type, number of reported incidents, and crimes per 100,000 people. The site also provides statistics about the area’s crime trends and shows how it compares to state and national crime statistics.

Family Watchdog maps the addresses of registered sex offenders in your neighborhood or near your child’s school. Just type a location or address into the website’s search box, and Family Watchdog generates a map pinpointing the address of nearby registered sex offenders. If you’re looking for a specific individual, you can search for them by name.

Color-coded icons correspond to various sex crimes, including crimes against children, sexual battery, and rape. Click the icon, and you’ll see a picture of the offender, learn their aliases, and find out what sex crime they’ve been convicted of.

You can sign up for alerts whenever a registered sex offender moves in or out of your neighborhood through the website. In addition to detailed information about offenders, this online tool offers personal safety tips, facts about sexual abuse, and a comprehensive blog and newsletter.

Family Watchdog is a free service, but you’ll be sent off-site to a subscription service if you want detailed background reports about any offenders.

CityProtect is an interactive neighborhood crime map that uses data from more than 1,000 participating law enforcement agencies. Search CityProtect by city, region, address, zip code, or law enforcement agency to see a map with icons identifying recent police activity.

We like how specific this tool gets. Filters allow you to narrow your crime search by date range, day of the week, time of day, and incident type. With CityProtect, you can also sign up for periodic crime alerts, submit a tip, and register your home security camera.

SpotCrime maps crimes on-site and delivers crime alerts to your email. It gathers data from more than just law enforcement agencies. It also collects information from news reports and user tips.

SpotCrime isn’t as robust as some of the other sites on our list, but we appreciate how user-friendly and highly visual it is, giving you a quick look at crime information in your neighborhood. Crimes are represented by icons that make it easy to see what activity takes place in your neighborhood.

When you click on an icon, you get the crime title, when and where it took place, and a link that directs you to the source where the data came from.

Life360 is a phone app with heaps of safety features, including crime report maps and sex offender maps. It's great for quickly checking the safety of a neighborhood when you're traveling or making plans for a fun night out. Life360's crime and sex offender maps require at least a Silver membership plan, which costs about $15 a month and covers everyone in your Circle.

The only downside is that you can't filter the crime maps to show specific types of crime, like assault. On the other hand, you do get a lot of information about sex offenders—right down to their photo, age, address, and crime. 

Having Life360 in your pocket also means you have quick access to an SOS button if you feel unsafe. If you sign up for the Platinum plan (about $25/mo.) you can also get extra safety features like roadside assistance or travel assistance, which can help you feel secure no matter where you go.

Wherever you live, feeling safe in your home can bring greater peace of mind and happiness. Check out our home security checklist to make sure your home is as protected as possible.

You may also want to consider a monitored home security system or security cameras to help protect your loved ones and valuables. Just seeing a security camera or home security sign or sticker can deter a would-be intruder. And monitored systems can call for law enforcement if a break-in does occur.

• 7 Simple Ways to Make Your Neighborhood Safer
• Staying Safe in Your Neighborhood
• Steps to Starting a Neighborhood Watch
• 10 Factors to Consider When Determining the Safety of Your Neighborhood
• Best Video Doorbell Cameras