Kansas City suburb named one of the 25 safest cities in the US. Here’s why study said so
Lee’s Summit was named one of the 25 “safest cities” in the nation in a recent ranking by Money Geek. But what does that really mean?
The city had the 23rd lowest societal cost of crime in the nation, according to the ranking by the financial website. The analysis, published in December, calculated the estimated societal cost per capita of crime in cities across the country. Crime cost each Lee’s Summit resident an estimated $543 per year.
The lowest cost on the list of 292 cities larger than 100,000 residents was Ramapo Town, New York, at $271 per person, and the highest was Memphis at $11,582 per person.
Money Geek’s analysis used a method from a 2010 study that assigned dollar amounts to the harm to communities from different crimes. A murder cost $8.5 million in 2008 dollars, while a vehicle theft cost $10,772. The costs on the legal system, loss of income tax from the offender, and pain and suffering were included in the estimate.
According to the Money Geek study, there were a total of 161 violent crimes per 100,000 Lee’s Summit residents in 2023 — the 29th lowest in the nation. This included murder, non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, with totals taken from FBI crime data.
In the city of 104,000, there was one homicide in 2023 and none in 2024.
Non-violent crimes were much more common in the Kansas City suburb: The property crime rate for 2023 was 2,179 offenses per 100,000 residents, 115th in the country. This includes burglary, larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft.
Sgt. Chris Depue, spokesperson for the Lee’s Summit Police Department, said he was “not surprised” by the ranking.
Depue said law enforcement is working to reduce theft by distributing steering locks for cars vulnerable to getting stolen, like Kias, and sending plain-clothes officers to surveil stores.
More crime prevention programs are needed across Jackson County, said Vince Ortega, director of Jackson County COMBAT, which funds anti-violence efforts in Lee’s Summit and throughout the county.
Ortega said it is more expensive for governments to incarcerate a person than provide them with resources like rental assistance and mental health support.
Here is the ranking of Kansas and Missouri cities in the Money Geek list of 292 cities. Overland Park was omitted from the list because it did not publish certain violent crime metrics.
23: Lee’s Summit, Missouri
81: Olathe, Kansas
100: Independence, Missouri
161: Columbia, Missouri
234: Springfield, Missouri
238: Wichita, Kansas
268: Topeka, Kansas
284: Kansas City, Missouri
290: St. Louis, Missouri
Have more questions about safety in the Kansas City area? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.
