| New Britain is often considered a decent place to live, as it has a stable economy, a lower than average commute time and a lot of cultural diversity. It’s the 3rd best medium metro area for teleworking, the 5th best city for a healthy retirement and the 4th most popular city for the holidays. However, it isn’t a crime-free place to live, which means that people can benefit from having a home security system. Taking the crime rate into consideration will make the decision easier to make. Overall Crime Rate Although CT is the 11th safest state in the U.S., some places are safer to live than others within the state. New Britain is actually the 6th most dangerous place to live in CT by one ranking, and the city with the 17th highest crime rate in the state according to another. There are 32.79 crimes per 1,000 people each year in the city, making it so New Britain is only safer than about 29 percent of cities in the country. There’s a 1 in 31 chance of being the victim of some type of crime each year if you live in New Britain, as the crime rate is 14 percent higher than the national average. When crime is considered on a per square mile basis instead of a per person basis, the crime in New Britain is particularly high. There are 177 crimes per square mile each year compared to a national average of about 32 crimes per square mile. Violent Crime Rate When it comes to violent crime, New Britain is pretty much right around the average rate for the U.S. of 3.8 per 1,000 people per year. Thus, the chance of a resident being a victim of some sort of violent crime is about 1 in 264, compared to just 1 in 458 in CT in general. The number of robberies, rapes and murders is higher than the national average, while the number of assaults is lower. Although many of these crimes may take place outside of the home, having an alarm system can make it a lot less likely that someone will break into your home and commit a violent crime. Violent crimes occur during about 7 percent of burglaries if people are home during the burglary. Property Crime Rate People living in New Britain have a higher than average chance of becoming a victim of a property crime. There are 28.99 property crimes each year per 1,000 residents, compared to a national average of 24.9 per 1,000 residents. The burglary rate is higher as well, with 6.03 per 1,000 residents per year compared to 4.91 per 1,000 residents in the U.S. in general. The chances of becoming a victim of a property crime in New Britain is 1 in 34. Steps that can help limit burglaries include having an alarm system that includes both cameras and lights on motion sensors and is monitored by security personnel as well as locking doors and windows, trimming back any bushes and trees near the house and installing a deep-set dead-bolt lock in the front door. Police Response There are about 139 law enforcement employees in New Britain, making it so there are about 1.9 officers per 1,000 residents in the city. This is lower than the 2.6 per 1,000 residents average for CT and the 3.3 per 1,000 average overall for the U.S. Officers in the city have to deal with more crime per officer than in most other cities in CT with the exception of New Haven and Stratford. This could mean longer response times to emergency calls and may make it less likely that the police will be able to solve any particular crime. The police in New Britain have an overall case clearance rate of about 18 percent, which is less than the average clearance rate in the U.S. of 28 percent. The burglary clearance rate is only about 6 percent which is only half of the national burglary clearance rate of 12 percent. Police are most likely to quickly respond to a burglary alarm, perhaps in as little as 5 to 10 minutes, if the burglary has been verified by either video or a person who’s actually at the property. This means that if you have a security system that videotapes whatever set off the alarm, any burglary will be verified and given a higher priority than the typical burglar alarm call. Best Areas to Live Among the most popular neighborhoods in New Britain, the safest to live in include Slater Road/West Main Street, Corbin Avenue/Hart Street, Corbin Avenue/Black Rock Avenue, Francis Street/Roxbury Road and Stanley Street/Allen Street. People who would like to live somewhere near New Britain but in a city with a lower crime rate might want to move to Rocky Hill, Berlin or Wethersfield, all of which have less than one-third of the crime in New Britain. Potential Alarm Considerations While having an alarm can help decrease the risk of harm to yourself or your property, there are some regulations that need to be taken into consideration in New Britain. There’s a $25 licensing fee to have a burglar alarm, and after the first false alarm, there will be a fine with each subsequent alarm. In some cases, if there are too many false alarms the police will rescind the alarm license until steps are taken to remedy the situation, after which there will be a $5 reinstatement fee. The fine for the second false alarm is $50, with subsequent false alarms costing the homeowner $80 each. |
