Four murders and a fatal police shooting in Eau Claire rattled residents last year. Nonetheless, the Chippewa Valley remains a relatively safe place to live. In fact, it’s one of the safest in the nation, at least according to numbers compiled by the FBI and crunched by CQ Press for its annual metro crime rankings. According to the publisher’s latest report, the Eau Claire metro area was the 11th safest out of 358 metro areas nationwide in 2011 (the latest year for which full statistics are available). As with any rankings, these come with caveats. For one, because of a lack of certain statistics, many of our peer metro areas (including, most recently, Duluth, Minn., and La Crosse) aren’t included in the rankings. In addition, the FBI warns against using its data to “rank locales because there are many factors that cause the nature and type of crime to vary from place to place.”

“The police force is seen as a helpful entity, and not a threatening entity.”
-- Kerry Kincaid, Eau Claire City Council president

Overall, the number of crimes committed in the city of Eau Claire has fallen in recent years. According to the Eau Claire Police Department, 2,300 so-called “Part One Offenses” were committed in 2012, down 7 percent from 2011. (Crimes included in that figure are murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, theft, vehicle theft, and arson.)

Eau Claire City Council President Kerry Kincaid says residents feel safe, “And I gauge that by being downtown at 11:30 at night. It’s still a place where people are out and moving.” City Councilwoman Catherine Emmanuelle agrees that the Chippewa Valley is safe, but adds that high rates of alcohol abuse threaten public safety, particularly when it comes to sexual assault. In addition, drunken driving arrests have been on the rise.