Hanover Ranked Fourth Safest Town in New Hampshire

By Luke McCann, The Dartmouth Staff | 8/15/14 5:50pm

Hanover is the fourth safest town in New Hampshire, according to the Movoto Real Estate Blog, which recently ranked the crime rates of towns with populations of 5,000 residents or more. The ranking was created using data from the 2012 Uniform Crime Report from the FBI, and was calculated by the number of crimes committed per 100,000 residents.

The report shows that in 2012, Hanover had 98 violent crimes per 100,000 people, which included 71 incidences of rape, 27 assaults and 2,042 property crimes.

Exeter was ranked first on the list, followed by Londonderry and Durham, respectively.

Jesus Moreno ’16 said the ranking did not surprise him because he does not believe there is much motivation for crime in Hanover.

Hanover Police has a significant presence in the town, Antonia Hoidal '16 said, and she believes that would also deter most criminals from committing any crimes.

“I feel like I see four police cars when I’m just walking across the Green” she said. “I can’t imagine why anyone would want to commit a crime while there’s so many police officers and [Safety and Security] officers around.”

Some students expressed that the town's ranking did not necessarily reflect how safe they feel the College is. Regan Roberts ’16 said the relationship between Hanover and the College makes the ranking difficult to use for gauging crime at Dartmouth specifically.

“I feel like Dartmouth and Hanover are almost completely mutually exclusive in terms of crime,” she said. “If Hanover is safe that doesn’t necessarily reflect on Dartmouth, and if Dartmouth’s safe that doesn’t necessarily mean Hanover is.”

The disconnect between Hanover crime and Dartmouth crime was also brought up by Hoidal, who said she is more concerned about crimes taking place on campus than in Hanover.

“Hanover has always seemed like a safe town and I don’t ever feel worried about that,” she said. “What I’m more concerned about are the things that are happening inside the buildings here [on campus].”

While the ranking is meant to include statistics from the College as well, some students expressed lingering apprehension in light of Hanover being ranked as the fourth safest town in the state.

Kara Farnes ’15 cited the July 2 assault and robbery of Hubert Clark ’13 as he crossed the Green and the July 27 assault of Mark Cookson outside of Robert’s flowers as unnerving, but not necessarily enough to change her routine.

“Hanover is definitely the safest place I’ve ever lived, but in light of the recent crimes, it’s definitely worrying,” she said.


Luke McCann, The Dartmouth Staff