Moving fast on a much criticized ordinance resembling measures once taken by New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani (sp?) to rid the mean streets of indigents, the town council of Brick Township, NJ is favoring a "keep-moving" ordinance that makes it illegal to "remain idle" in public without a legitimate reason.

The ordinance is designed to stem the tide of assault- theft- and drug-related arrests of unruly teens who have prompted police to set up a substation at Brick Plaza, a favorite teen hang out in a town of 77,000 residents.

Amherst, NY's "Task Force On Substance Use & Abuse" was founded after representatives of the town's three public school districts and the Director of the Amherst Youth Board met to discuss ways to deal with the problem of substance use and abuse among young people. More than a decade later in the town of 111,000, the task force has yet to disband because the need remains.

And in San Jose, CA, ground zero for technology's rise and fall, and home to nearly 1 million residents, "state-of-the-art" gang abatement techniques and unique crime reducing efforts won the city accolades for its law enforcement efforts. The same efforts raised the ire of the American Civil Liberties Union, local real estate groups and even a police association.

From small town Brick to ethnically diverse San Jose, it's not easy being one of the nation's safest cities.

But in their population-size category -- Brick, among 117 cities with populations from 75,000 to 99,999); Amherst, among 195 cities of 100,000 to 499,999; and San Jose, among 30 cities of a half million or more -- the three came out at the top of the heap as the nation's safest cities.

Amherst was named the nation's safest city overall among 342 examined in the ninth annual Safest City Award, conducted by Morgan Quitno Press, a Lawrence, KS-based publishing and research company.

"Amherst is stuck at the top of our rankings, but it is no wonder that the city does so well. With no murders and some of the lowest crime rates in the nation, Amherst easily beat out the other 341 cities in this year's ranking," said Scott Morgan, president of Morgan Quitno Press.

Amherst has been No. 1 in low crime six of the nine years Morgan Quitno has presented the award.

To determine each city or state's level of safety, Morgan Quitno examined Federal Bureau of Investigations statistics for murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft and measured how a particular city or metro area compared to the national average for a given crime category.

At the bottom of the heap, Camden, NJ (small); St. Louis, MO (medium); and Detroit, MI (large) were the nation's most dangerous cities in their population-size category.

St. Louis received the dubious honor of being America's most dangerous city.

Published: December 11, 2002

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A journalist for 35-years, Broderick Perkins parlayed an old-school daily newspaper career into a digital news service offering editorial content and consulting services. Perkins' San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews Group includes the flagship news site, DeadlineNews.Com, offering real estate, personal finance and consumer journalism, and a backshop, the Deadline Newsroom.