Buckingham Township ranks 3rd on list of top 100 safest towns in U.S.
BUCKS COUNTY, Pa. - An online site that ranks safety solutions for homes and communities placed Buckingham Township as one of the top safest in the United States.
SafeWise ranked the township third on a list of the top 100 safest in the country.
"Living in the area, I know that it’s very safe here and I was glad to see that and it was recognized that way," said Gary Pirozzola. "We did get pulled over for driving too slow one day and I thought to myself well if that’s what the police has to do this has to be a safe area."
Chief Mike Gallagher of the Buckingham Township Police Department says he was pleased with the results of the ranking and that community relations play a big part.
"Officers here are urged to get out of their car, community policing is a big part of what we do," he said.
According to the SafeWise website, the 100 cities listed have a collective violent crime rate that is 92 percent lower than the national average. These cities also report 79 percent fewer property crimes per 1,000 people than most of the U.S.
"We never had much violent crime and I think we’re pretty much down to zero on that cause we have great residents, great people that come and visit us here in town," said Gallagher. "We get a lot of cars being entered because it’s such a safe area people start feeling they don’t have to lock their cars and it’s a crime of opportunity, but the major crimes when people are getting injury to aggravated assault obviously rape and murder they don’t happen that often here and we’re really glad they don’t."
In the archives, a few things stood out over the last few years. Gallagher says the department recently cleared thousands of cases involving thefts from unlocked cars.
"There were some aggravated assaults but they are few and far between," Gallagher said.
Gallagher says he credits this to the hard work of his department of 20 officers and two civilians. He read some of the officers’ mission statements.
"We, the officers and staff of the Buckingham Township Police Department, commit to being responsive to our communities needs and concerns. We will treat all people as we would want our loved ones treated," he said. "Kind of short and sweet, but it says everything we need it to."
Though Buckingham is not known for having any major cases or heavy crimes to solve, no town is perfect.
Five-year old Daniel Desko and his sister Caroline are on top a bird crime.
"Well, did you know that there are English sparrows trying to fight the bluebirds out of there so they want to build a nest, but it’s only for bluebirds," Desko said.
Desko's mom, Heather, and their neighbor, Thomas, say even with birds battling, Buckingham is still worthy of its ranking.
"The neighbors know each other really well, we watch over each other, the houses, the kid," she said. "I mean, I thought it was kind of cool. It made me really grateful to get to live here and raise my kids here."
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