Nevada called most dangerous again

Stephen Curran

Wednesday, March 23, 2005 | 8:54 a.m.

Nevada has the dubious distinction of being the most dangerous state in the union for the second consecutive year, according to an annual survey of crime rates released earlier this month.

Morgan Quitno Press, a Lawrence, Kan.-based research group, this month announced that it had again determined that Nevada was the most dangerous state.

Nevada also held the most dangerous title in 1999, 1997 and 1996.

Scott Morgan, president of Morgan Quitno, said Nevada had the second-highest car theft rate in the country and the fourth-highest murder rate. Those rates remained high because of Nevada's relatively tiny rural population to offset the high urban crime rate.

"Nevada's such an odd place," Morgan said. "It has two major city areas and very little else in terms of population."

According to the group, researchers entered six crime categories -- murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft -- into a formula to determine how the state compares to the national averages in those categories. Because those numbers are each assigned the same weight, the comparisons are based purely on crime rates, they said.

North Dakota was ranked safest for the eighth-straight year, according to researchers.

Morgan-Quitno does a variety of rankings of geographical areas. The group in 2004 named the Silver State the 45th healthiest state, a number that held steady this year. Morgan-Quitno also ranked Nevada the 29th most liveable.

But the company's rankings of the "safest cities" have long been met with skepticism from law enforcement and crime analysts, who say inconsistencies in state reporting methods make the numbers the company uses apples and oranges.

Officer Jose Montoya, a Metro Police spokesman, said the department sees Morgan Quitno's numbers as "skewed" figures that fail to take into account population increases and Nevada's continued popularity with tourists.

"We don't pay much attention to it," he said of the rankings. "We don't think it's right, and we don't think it's fair."

Between 1999 and 2004, the department recorded a 2 percent decrease in murder, an 8 percent drop in rapes and a 4 percent dip in robbery, he said. But, he acknowledges, there was also an 81 percent jump in aggravated assault and 33 percent increase in car theft rates in that same five-year period.

Morgan Quitno researchers failed to take into account the 20 percent population increase during the timeframe when compiling their numbers, Montoya said.

Morgan said he's not surprised by the Metro spokesman's statements. It is typical of the kinds of complaints the company hears from local governments and police departments whose cities or states fare poorly in the company's rankings.

"The first step toward fixing it is acknowledging the problem," he said. "The first reaction is that we're just a number of idiots in Kansas."