South Ogden has been declared the 18th safest city in Utah with North Ogden ahead by a slight margin.
It is stated on Safewise.com, a website that deals in security systems, that due to South Ogden’s close proximity to Hill Air force Base it is indeed a safer city to live in.
In the 1940’s South Ogden was known as the “City of homes” because of how many neighborhoods were popping up on, or near the hillside.
According to neighborhoodscout.com, with data from Ogden’s City Center, there are only .77 violent crimes and 18.78 property crimes per 1,000 people in South Ogden. North Ogden’s percentages are lower, but only slightly. In North Ogden there are .39 violent crimes and 16.03 property crimes per 1,000 people.
“I think it depends on the demography that is living there,” said Devin Sand, senior and criminal justice major. “If you get towards the inner city in Ogden, it’s where the dangerous activity occurs.”
Sand continued to say that people claim that Ogden is safe but need to define where in Ogden are the safer locations.
Looking at the comparison in percentage of violent crimes in Utah as a whole versus Ogden, Ogden’s rate is almost double that of Utah as a whole.
Violent crimes in Ogden are estimated to be 4.94 per 1,000 residents while Utah stands at 2.24 per 1,000 residents. The national average of violent crimes is around 3.8 per 1,000 residents.
Ogden has a property crime rate of 48.27 per 1,000 residents while Utah as a whole is almost half that at 29.50 per 1,000 residents.
Salt Lake City’s crime rate almost doubles compared to Ogden. In Salt Lake City, there are 8.26 violent crimes per 1,000 people and there are 67.44 property crimes per 1,000 residents.
“I have an uncle that works for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and fire arms (ATF) who said that we have some of the biggest gangs in Ogden out of the whole state,” said Sidney Saucedo, freshman and criminal justice major. “I don’t see them by the school but they are probably closer to downtown.”
Saucedo believes that the city is working to make downtown Ogden nicer in order to deter crime as well as to hide the crime.
With these statistics, students can see that even though Ogden, specifically South and North Ogden, are safer than some cities in Utah, it is still crucial to work to protect yourself from crime.
Students can work to clean up their town. By working with officials, even students can make the city a safer place to live.
Cleaning up parts of the city can deter crime and make it a better place to live.
Most campuses have some sort of safety system in place. Weber State has code purple, which can alert students when there is an emergency or suspicious activity.
Another resource that students have readily available to them is the emergency call buttons around campus, where students can call campus police in the case of an emergency.
“Students can work to be aware of the surroundings when they are out and about in order to avoid landing themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Alyssa Steinbeigle, a junior at WSU.
