Farmers Insurance Group of Companies has named Las Cruces, N.M., and its surrounding metropolitan areas--Mesilla, Hatch and Sunland Park--the "Number One Most Secure Places to Live in the U.S."

The designation came after a survey in 2006. Las Cruces and its surrounding metropolitan areas were ranked in the medium-size cities category, the company said.

The survey studied 379 U.S. municipalities which were divided into three groups--large metropolitan areas, midsize cities and small towns, said Farmers.

On Friday the mayors of each municipality will be presented with most secure city recognition plaques by Farmers New Mexico State Executive Craig Allen, at a luncheon in the Las Cruces Farm and Ranch Museum.

The rankings, compiled by bestplaces.net--an analyzing data company on people and places--took into consideration unemployment, crime rate, severe weather, environmental hazards and risk of terror threats in each municipality, said bestplace.net President Bert Sperling.

In terms of insurance rates, many cities surveyed had higher insurance rates, said Mr. Sperling.

"Hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes affected insurance rates in the areas we studied," he said. "Crime risks were also a major component to insurance rates..." Local government and state organization performance are also factors for insurance rates in many of the cities surveyed in the study.

"When you have an excellent local government and state organizations working together, you end up with a city with good experience, and over time that would affect insurance rates," said Farmers' spokesperson Jerry Davies.

Metropolitan areas included in the study were given points for each criterion based on their relation to the other metro areas' scores in that data category, the survey report said.

The most significant data element for any given category received a score of 100 points. The data element for each category which was associated with the most negative indicator of security received a score of 0 points, the survey said.

Special Reports /

Las Cruces Is Most Secure City, Says Farmers

Related Stories

Recommended For You