CreditDonkey identified Cornwall as one of the 50 safest communities in New York State.
In a recent report released by CreditDonkey, Cornwall was 21st on a list of the 50 safest cities in New York.
CreditDonkey is a credit card comparison website that publishes data-driven analysis to help people save money and make wise financial decisions.
To come up with the cities where the least amount of crime occurs, analysts used the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report data for 2014.
The study considered violent crime (murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault) and property crime (burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, arson) rates per 1,000 inhabitants for each municipality with a population of 5,000 people or more.
CreditDonkey also singled out robberies and burglaries because they occur more often and are a bigger concern to residents.
Cornwall crimes
per 1,000 residents
0.0 violent crimes
0.0 robberies
4.9 property crimes
2.9 burglaries
“Cornwall is a picture-perfect image of what you’d expect a small town to look like,” CreditDonkey said. “Once a popular summer resort, it’s evolved into a low-key place to live, work, and play in safety. Not a single violent crime was reported here in 2014, and there were 47 property crimes. The Cornwall Police Department deserves recognition for their ability to maintain such an impressive safety rating.”
In reviewing the rankings, Town of Cornwall Police Chief Todd Hazard agreed with the information provided for Cornwall, but questioned some of the other data, especially for Woodbury, which was ranked second.
“I know for a fact they [the police] make over 300 arrests a year just for shoplifting which is a property crime,” Hazard said. “This says they only had only five property crimes reported in 2014.”
On Cornwall being one of the safest cities in the state, Hazard said it’s reassuring to know his department is making a difference. He couldn’t take all the credit, however. The chief attributed the low crime rate to Cornwall being mostly a residential community. Since there’s not a lot of commercial activity at night, there aren’t a lot of shoplifting arrests. Patrols throughout the day also help deter would-be criminals.
Cornwall was not the only Orange County community to crack the study’s top 50. The others were Woodbury (2nd), Town of Highlands (10th), Montgomery (35th) and Blooming Grove (49th).
“It might surprise you to learn,” the report says, “that as a whole New York’s crime rate is well below the national average.”