| The city of Beaverton, Oregon has won a number of different awards, including a spot on Money magazine’s 100 Best Places to Live in America and BusinessWeek’s Best Places to Raise Kids. The city takes safety seriously, and it shows in the crime statistics. Overall Crime Rate Beaverton is safer than 46 percent of the cities in the United States and was named the safest city in Oregon in 2013. Residents still have a 1 in 32 chance of becoming a victim of some type of crime, however. The city has a violent crime rate of 1.41 per 1,000 people, which is much lower than the national average of 3.8 per 1,000 residents. The same is true of property crimes, such as burglary, with a rate of about 16 per 1,000 people compared to the national average of about 26 per 1,000 people. Where the numbers look a worse is when you consider the actual area of Beaverton, as it has about 88 crimes per square mile compared to a national average of about 33 crimes per square mile. That said, it is safer than the nearby cities of Portland, Tigard, Hillsboro and Tualatin. Those looking for an even safer location to live nearby might want to consider either Lake Oswego or Sherwood, which have slightly lower crime rates. Burglary in the City For 2015, there were a total of 98 residential and 39 non-residential burglaries. The good news is, residential burglaries were down more than 8 percent compared to 2014. However, non-residential burglaries were up 34.5 percent, although the numbers are still lower than those for residential burglaries. Getting some type of security system, especially a monitored system, can make your home about 33 percent less likely to be robbed, as most burglars prefer to hit easy targets. Other good ways to reduce the risk include getting stronger locks on the front door, making sure to always lock all doors and windows, getting outdoor lights on motion sensors and getting an indoor dog. Burglary By Neighborhood Those interested in finding out just what the crime rates are in their neighborhood for a number of different offenses can go to www.beavertonpolice.org/210/Crime-Information-by-Neighborhood, where the police post this information. There’s always some neighborhoods where burglaries are more likely to occur than others. As of October 2016, the three areas with the fewest residential burglaries in 2016 were Highland, West Beaverton and Neighbors Southwest, which each had only one or two burglaries. The neighborhood with the highest number of residential burglaries for 2016 was Central Beaverton, with 16, followed by Vose, with eight, and Five Oaks/Triple Creek and South Beaverton, which each had seven residential burglaries. If you live in one of the neighborhoods where burglaries are more prevalent, getting some type of security system is particularly important. Burglars tend to get out of the house in six to ten minutes, which is usually faster than the police are able to respond. Having a security system with video will help make it so the police will have some evidence to help solve the crime even if they don’t make it before the criminals have left the home. Nationally, only about 10 percent of burglaries are ever solved. Police Presence As of 2014, there were a total of 173 law enforcement employees in this city, including 137 police officers, making the number of officers per 1,000 residents 1.9. This is slightly lower than the average number of police officers per 1,000 residents for Oregon in general, which is 2.2, and 42.6 percent less than the national average of 3.3 officers per 1,000 residents. Having fewer police officers makes it more likely that response times to 911 calls or alarms may be a bit slower, but this doesn’t seem to be a problem in Beaverton, as they are said to have an excellent response time. Having an alarm system that includes video footage of whatever sets off the alarm can often make response times even quicker should your alarm go off, as this provides verification that there’s a real burglary in progress. Many times, the alarms sent by security systems are false alarms, so without verification by a witness or video, these calls are typically given a lower priority compared to other calls. Alarm System Benefits Even though Beaverton is a relatively safe place, burglaries and other crimes do occur. Having an alarm system can give you more peace of mind that everything is okay at home. It’s also possible to get these systems set up so that they will contact the appropriate emergency services if there’s an issue with the carbon monoxide or fire alarms going off in the home. This is greatly beneficial if the alarms happen to go off when nobody’s home. Otherwise, the appropriate authorities wouldn’t be notified until any problem was visible from the outside, potentially increasing the property damage and losses should a fire occur. Those with medical issues or disabilities can also get medical alert monitoring as part of their security system. Many systems now have free mobile apps that let you control the security system from your smartphone. This way you can get updates if something sets the system off and you may even be able to adjust thermostats or remotely turn lights on or off or lock and unlock doors. This can be a real added convenience, especially if you’re one of those people that starts to worry that they forgot to lock the door as soon as they’re a few miles away from home. |
