For the last two years, Camden, N.J., has been ranked the most dangerous city in America - but not anymore.
This year, Camden is ranked fifth in the annual study by the Morgan Quitno Press, while Philadelphia came in at 29th. The 78,000-person city of Brick Township, N.J., was ranked safest.
Philadelphia ranked 29th despite 380 total murders in the city last year. It ranked 33rd the ear before. According to Scott Morgan, president of the Kansas-based Morgan Quitno, the city did not enter the top 25 most dangerous cities because of its large population and relatively lower rate of general crimes compared the top-ranking cities.
Camden's former title went to St. Louis, which was followed by Detroit; Flint, Mich.; and Compton, Calif.
According to the Morgan Quitno, Camden's rise in the rankings was based less on reduced crime in the city and more on the surging violence across a rash of cities in the Midwest. In St. Louis alone, violent crime skyrocketed nearly 20 percent from 2004 to last year.
The rankings reflect June 2005 FBI crime statistics for six categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft, Morgan said.
Trenton, New Jersey's state capital, and Reading, Pa., ranked 14th and 21st most dangerous, respectively. Meanwhile, Dover and Edison, both in northern New Jersey, were 14th and 23rd on the safest list.
"There have been a lot of good things going on in the past three years," said the Rev. Tony Evans, spokesman for Camden Mayor Gwendolyn Faison. "We have the Camden Anti-Crime Partnership, we went under state emergency control [in 2004], and . there have been various initiatives put on to address crime by the state itself. These are results for a year and a half ago. We're even better than that now."
Camden, a nine square-mile city, has had 23 homicides so far this year, according to Camden police records. Evans said 95 percent of the crime in the city is drug-related but that an increase in jobs, especially among those under 25 years old, is gradually decreasing the crime rate in the city.
The rate of violent crime in Camden is still fourth highest in the nation, according to the study. It is second for robberies, seventh for homicides and 11th for aggravated assaults among cities with more than 75,000 people.
