Longboat Key ranks fifth in company's list of safest in state

Home Security Advisor, a national home security company, ranked Longboat Key its fifth-safest city in Florida for towns with a population of 5,000 or higher.

This is the 10th year in a row that Longboat, which has 7,000 permanent residents, made the security company’s list.

 Marco Island was No. 1.

“We are proud of the ranking,” said Police Chief Pete Cumming, whose department has 19 officers, both full time and part time. “It didn’t happen by accident.”

Home Security said Longboat Key reported 52 property crimes based on 2016 FBI Uniform Crime Report figures. No violent crimes were reported. (The double homicide at the Zota Beach Resort occurred in August 2017 and a carjacking at gunpoint was reported earlier this year. In both cases, suspects were arrested.)

“With the exceptions of those homicides, we have a low crime rate,” Cumming said. “We like it that way.”

The rest of the top five:

Weston, in Broward County, was No. 2.

Parkland, in Broward County, was No. 3. The city was the site of the Feb. 14 mass shooting in which 17 students were killed and 17 others were wounded.

 Bay Harbor Islands, in Miami-Dade County, was No. 4.

Home Security considered both violent crime — aggravated assault, murder, rape and robbery — and property crimes, such as burglary, arsons, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft.

These figures were then weighted to reflect the severity of the crime. Violent crimes were factored by 0.75 and property crimes by 0.25.

As a whole, the state averaged 430 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents in 2016.