Amarillo ranked No. 5 'most dangerous' city in Texas

AMARILLO, TX (KFDA) - What makes a city dangerous? A law firm based out in Houston thinks they know the answer.

The Darrow Law Firm looked at 2014 FBI crime data and released a report -- ranking cities in Texas with more than 100-thousand people. Amarillo was named 5th most dangerous city when accounting for high rates of crime and rape, and low rates of law enforcement spending.

However, latest statistics from Amarillo Police show crime in our area has decreased from last year.Crimes like burglary, theft, and arson went down continuing a downward trend. The Department also addressed the high number of rape cases in its 2015 annual report-- which now include the rape of males.

West Texas A&M Criminology professor and retied police chief, Doctor Harry Hueston, is pushing against the law firm's report saying it mischaracterizes Amarillo.

"To take a one year snap shot and say in this one year this crime has gone up and then because crime has gone up it's more dangerous, is not realistic," said Hueston. "Crime rates have to be looked at over a long period of time."

The Darrow Law Firm looked at three factors for their ranking: Crime, police, and community. Out of 34 cities in the state, Amarillo ranked 3rd highest in crime, 14th-lowest in police investment and 24th-highest in community risk, per capita.

Hueston cautions these stats do not reflect what is going on in the city.

"It poses a new area in how we sell Amarillo as a city," said Hueston. "If it is portrayed improperly and people then say, well I have a choice between Amarillo and another place, they may go to the other place based upon this on little thing."

We reached out to the Darrow Law Firm for comment on their recent analysis, but they did not respond before news time.

Click here to check out the rest of the report by Darrow Law Firm.

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