Gallup Poll: Seattle Perceived as America's Safest City
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Americans had a lot to say about their feelings and whether they are, in fact, feeling optimistic about the crime rate, that is our next story here. Apparently, they're still not ready to declare a war, the war on crime, though, is over yet; that is the gist of what they told our Gallup pollsters. And we turn now to Gallup Poll editor-in-chief Frank Newport to talk about some of his findings. What did these Americans tell you, Frank?</s>FRANK NEWPORT, GALLUP POLL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Well, you hit the nail on the head there, Carol. We've been asking Americans for a number of years: Is the crime rate in this U.S. today going lower? or is it going higher? And although we all know, at least the FBI tells us, that crime has been going down, Americans are very reluctant to overwhelmingly admit that. Let's show you what we're talking about. Going back to 1989, that red line is the percent of Americans who say there's more crime this year than last year each year. Notice, it used to be near universal, like 90 percent, who said more crime. Now, it has been going down, starting about 1996. But, as of our most recent poll just finished a couple of nights ago, it's still 47 percent of Americans who say there's more crime rather than less. But of course, this yellow line, less crime, has been going up, and the lines are getting closer. So Americans are certainly becoming more aware that crime is down, but it's very hard for them, apparently, to tell pollsters that there's less crime; they still seem to think crime's going up, at least 47 percent of them. Now, where is crime high or low? Very interesting data here. These are perceptions -- mark that -- not reality, but perceptions of the safety of big cities. We read a list of cities to Americans and said: Are these cities unsafe if you were to live or visit there? Well, first of all, the good news. Here's the safest cities out of our list: Houston, 31 percent said they were unsafe; then Boston; then Dallas; then Minneapolis, just 18 percent said it was unsafe; and the winner out of a list we gave people was Seattle. Perception-wise, only 17 percent of Americans say Seattle is unsafe. So it wins as the perceived safest city out of the ones we gave them. Here's the bad news. These are the cities that Americans from a distance think are unsafe: Washington D.C., 58 percent think that's unsafe; Detroit, 60 percent; New York, 64; Miami, 65; and the winner, just by one or two points, Los Angeles, 67 percent. Again, this isn't reality, but this is pretty depressing, I'm sure to the mayors of these cities. Large numbers of Americans from a distance thinks that New York, Miami and Los Angeles, Carol, would be dangerous places to visit or to live in. And that's where we stand from the public. Back to you.</s>LIN: All right, thanks so much, Frank.