Neighborhood safety is really important for you and your loved ones, and it also helps if you have plans to sell your home someday. Because no one will want to buy your home if there are criminal activities in your neighborhood.
Also, neighborhood safety can impact the health and well-being of the residents because a safe neighborhood can give you peace of mind.
There are a number of online tools available to check the safety of your neighborhood. And these tools can provide you with helpful information that you might need if you are wondering “how safe is my neighborhood?”.
In this article, we have covered the 7 most effective ways to check how safe is your neighborhood. Also, here we have discussed how you can find a safe neighborhood.
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Things You Should Look For While Choosing The Right Neighborhood For You
You will want to be aware of several factors while choosing if an area is right for you. However, these factors might not cover everything you should look for, but they will provide you with a good way to analyze the safety of your neighborhood.
- Crime Rates: It might seem an obvious thing to consider, but you should also keep in mind that violent crimes are generally concentrated in small areas. So, it is really important not to judge a whole city based on those crime reports. You should check the crime data for your specific neighborhood to get a better idea of which areas are more dangerous.
- Lack Of Green Space: It has been found that in many cities, the better green space, the less criminal activity. But, only having a park in your area is definitely not enough. The park must support positive activities, create a community, and raise funding for maintenance.
- Abandoned Buildings: If there are many abandoned buildings in a neighborhood where you are thinking about moving, then you should look into the crime statistics of that area. According to several reports, there is a correlation between retail stores and crime rates, because when stores and restaurants are closed, the crime rate goes up – property crime and vehicle theft increase.
7 Ways To Evaluate The Safety Of Your Neighborhood: They Really Make a Difference
If you want to check whether your potential or current neighborhood is safe or not, then there are several online resources that you can use to measure crime in a particular area. Here we have covered the 7 most useful tools and resources to evaluate the safety of your neighborhood.
1. Use CityProtect To View Recent Crimes In Your Area
There might be a significant amount of crime happening in your neighborhood and you might not even know about it. Because you might not want to keep track of that crime-related news constantly. Then, the CityProtect website can help you.
It is a website where you can put in your address, region or ZIP code to view recent crimes in your local area on an interactive neighborhood map. Also, you can narrow down your research by using different filters if you want to search for only a particular type of crime.
And you will see that property theft, personal crimes, drug crimes, and other types of crimes are denoted by different icons.
If you click on a crime, CityProtect will give you details of the incident including location, type, date, and time. And then it will direct you to the appropriate law enforcement agencies if you want to ask questions.
Also, it will provide you with a notification function so that you will receive alerts about new crimes in your area.
2. Using NeighborhoodScout To Check Your Area’s Crime Statistics
NeighborhoodScout can help new home buyers to compare crime data of different places. However, it can also be really useful for current residents.
You just need to enter your ZIP code or address, and it will give you a crime map of your area, where you can easily find areas with higher and lower crimes.
Here you can clearly distinguish the safest and most dangerous areas and then you can click on those areas for details, including real estate prices and trends, and neighborhood characteristics.
And the crime data on this website can provide you with a good overview of what types of crime you can expect to see and the possibility of you encountering crime in that particular area.
Also, this website can match people with the best neighborhoods for them and their families. However, you will need a paid subscription for some of the details, but some of it is free.
3. Check Livability Of Your Area On AreaVibes
If you don’t want to search specifically for crime data, then you can use AreaVibes which can provide you with information about the livability of the area depending on several factors such as education, housing, cost of living, crime rates, employment, and culture.
This website will give you a wider picture of what it would be like for you to live there, depending on your personal preferences and interests.
On this website, you can select a particular area and also compare it with nearby areas that have higher or lower livability scores. And it also allows you to sort by what is most important to you.
This website is particularly helpful for safety, however, if you are also interested in housing, education, or employment, it covers that field as well. AreaVibes also gives you links to homes for sale or rent in that particular area.
4. Locate Registered Sex Offenders In Your Area With Family Watchdog
Convicted sex offenders are generally required to register their own addresses with local law enforcement agencies as a condition of their release.
There can be some citizens who are worried about these sex offenders because they might have young children who might be walking to school.
So, it will allow them to search for the locations online to check if there is an offender nearby and Family Watchdog is an easily accessible option to do this. This site will help you locate registered sex offenders in your local area.
You just need to enter your address or ZIP code and it will provide you with a map of where the offenders are located.
This website will give you a map of the area with icons representing the address you entered, nearby schools, and colored icons indicating where registered sex offenders live.
The different types of colors indicate the type of offense they committed and whether their location is a residence or workplace. This website also lets you sign up for alerts when a registered offender moves to your area.
5. Connect With Your Neighbors Using Nextdoor
If you want to feel more secure in your neighborhood, then your first step should be connecting with your neighbors. And NextDoor is one of the best ways to stay informed about what is going on in your neighborhood.
It is actually a private social network for your community where your neighbors can share safety tips or talk about any suspicious activity.
On this platform, the signing-up process is really easy and you can even have real-time conversations between you and your neighbors.
Nextdoor really connects you with the people living in your neighborhood and it is very useful for connecting neighbors with questions about local wildlife, crime, traffic alerts, and reminders about construction.
And it can be also used for finding dog walkers and babysitters or selling the extra chair in your garage.
6. Keep Your Home And Family Safe With ADT Go App
ADT customers can easily use the ADT Go app for keeping their homes and families safe. Existing customers can download the ADT Go app on their smartphones to keep their family safe as they walk home from school, or take the dog out for a walk.
Also, this app provides members with a panic button that they can simply hold down if they face that kind of situation and ADT will arrange an immediate response for them. This app also has an Automatic Crash Detection Service with emergency response.
So, if any member of your family experiences an accident, then it will alert their emergency contacts immediately.
And the ADT Go app also offers family location sharing, so you can check that your kids have returned home from school and it provides updated data on nearby crimes.
7. Check Your Surroundings In A Specific Area On Crime and Place
Crime and Place is a map-based app that will allow you to quickly check your surroundings in a specific area. This application can actually save your life by helping you to avoid becoming the victim of a violent crime.
Also, you can search for addresses and it will provide you with a heat map with high and low crime rates. And if you drop a pin on the map, it will notify you if it’s a potentially dangerous area to enter.
So, you can easily verify that your next stop would not be an unexpected high crime area. There are several additional features of this app, such as you can set up notifications when entering high-crime areas.
Tips To Follow While Finding A Safe Neighborhood
If you have already tried these above-mentioned methods and are still wondering “how safe is my neighborhood?”, then here we have given you a few more tips to help you find a safe neighborhood.
1. Talking To Residents Of The Area
If can be the most effective way to know about the safety of a particular neighborhood. You should introduce yourself to them and then ask for their personal opinion about the area. You can also ask for their recommendation and any safety issues in the area.
2. Take Part In Community Events
If a neighborhood is offering community events to celebrate the neighborhood, that is always a great sign – it can be a charity event or the opening of a local shop. Because it is a great opportunity for you to know about the people and environment you will soon be living in.
3. Check The Conditions Of The Neighborhood
You should look at the conditions of the neighborhood, as it can tell you something about its overall safety. Because a safe neighborhood is generally well-maintained. So, if you see broken windows of houses, broken-down homes, and fences, it could indicate an unsafe neighborhood.
4. Talk To Local Business Owners
If a community is thriving, then local shops will also grow. So, if you see rapidly growing restaurants, coffee shops, and even clothing stores in an area, then most probably people are happy in their neighborhood and also supporting their local small businesses. You can talk to business owners and visit their shops to get information from your potential neighbors.
Wrap-Up On How Safe Is My Neighborhood
Neighborhood safety is definitely the most important thing to consider when you are moving to a new place.
Because it not only keeps you and your family safe from the huge number of crimes occurring around your place but also gives you the peace of mind you need.
But, completely depending only on your neighborhood safety is not a smart thing to do. So, you should invest in your safety to protect yourself and your family from violent crimes.
You can always invest in a home security system that can help you protect your property and your loved ones.
We hope that our informative guide has helped you to get the answer to your question – how safe is my neighborhood. If you still have some questions left in your mind regarding this topic, please let us know in the comments below.
FAQ: How Safe Is My Neighborhood
As a lot of people are trying to find their ideal neighborhood, they always want to how safe a particular area is for their family. So, they are asking some common questions every now and then, and here we have tried to answer a few of them.
Q1. What To Do If A Neighbor Makes You Feel Unsafe?
Ans: If any situation comes where you have some kind of immediate fear of your neighbor, specifically if the person gives you physical threats or engages in any activity relating to your property damage, then you should gather any evidence you have of the issues and immediately call the police.
Q2. How Can You And Your Neighbors Help Each Other To Keep Your Homes Safe?
Ans: The easiest and most effective way to ensure home security is by maintaining good friendly relationships with your neighbor. If you have someone to keep an eye on your property and check for any suspicious thing to inform you when you are away is an extremely effective way to keep your home safe.
Q3. Who Keeps Our Neighborhood Safe And Secure And How?
Ans: The police station generally helps us to keep our neighborhood safe and secure. Because we usually go to the police station to complain about any stolen things, accidents or crimes. And we call the fire station when there is a fire-related accident at home or in the neighborhood.
