The city, located close to the Texas-Mexico border, came in sixth on the list, moving up one place from last year's ranking, KDBC-TV reported. El Paso ranked right behind San Diego, California, and just ahead of San Jose, California.
The rankings were based on crime data. Numbers showed El Paso averaged 3.79 violent crimes for every 1,000 residents, with a low property crime rate of 18.1. Both numbers are improvements from last year.
“This positive momentum is even more impressive when you consider that El Paso sits below both the nationwide median household income and the average rate of high school graduation,” the study said.
El Pasoans who spoke to KDBC said they weren’t surprised with the ranking.
“I work downtown, as close to the border as you can get. I never see any kind of violence,” said Vanessa Maldonado.
“I’ve been around the country. I was in the military and I’ve seen how other big cities kind of blow everybody off. And here, your car might stall out and you’ll see six or seven cars stop to help,” said James Esparza.
The entire study can be viewed here.
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