The first part of this report presents the results of the Safest Cities survey, a crime study that ranks 207 cities of 100,000 population or more in overall safety. In addition, the report calculates rankings of metropolitan areas. The rankings of the top 10 of safest cities is as follows: Amherst, N.Y.; Simi Valley, Calif.; Sterling Heights, Minn.; Thousand Oaks, Calif.; Sunnyvale, Calif.; Irvine, Calif.; Livonia, Minn.; Santa Clarita, Calif.; Mesquite, Tex.; and Plano, Tex. The second section provides definitions, facts, and comments that give insight into the number that are presented in this report. The third section reports statistics for metropolitan areas. Forty tables, presented in both alphabetical and rank order, compare 275 U.S. metropolitan areas in number of crimes, crime rates, and crime trends over one and five years. Section four features statistical tables that show crime rankings for cities. Statistics cover cities of 75,000 or more population that have reported crime data to the FBI. More than 300 cities are ranked in 10 categories of crime. Crime numbers, rates, and percent changes in crime rates over one and five years are featured. In addition, tables show numbers and rates of police officers patrolling the streets of these cities. Both the city and metro statistics sections show the same layout, in which the first two pages of each table show the cities in alphabetical order, and the third and fourth pages show them in rank order. The final section consists of appendixes that provide population tables for cities and metro areas as well as cross reference tools that describe which cities and counties compose specific metropolitan areas. Overall, the report shows that crime in the United States continues to decrease. Final 1996 crime data, released by the FBI on October 4, 1997, show that across the Nation the incidence of crime decreased for the fifth consecutive year. Rates of violent crime dropped 7.4 percent in 1996 and more than 16 percent in the last 5 years. Likewise, property crime rates hit their lowest level in 23 years.