Enumclaw once again made the top-20 safest cities in Washington, according to the review site SafeWise.

SafeWise, a review website that tracks crime rates and ranks city safety all over the country, placed Enumclaw at No. 16 in the state in its 2023 report.

Ranking No. 1 was Sammamish; down at No. 20 is Anacortes.

Enumclaw’s ranking has been moving down the list for a couple years now; in 2022, the city ranked No. 13, and in 2021, No. 11.

This may be in part due to SafeWise finding that both property and violent crime rates in the city have increased over the last three years.

According to the company’s 2021 report, the property crime rate for every 1,000 people was at 17.4, while this year’s report shows it increased to just over 20.1; over the same time period, violent crime increased from 0.5 crimes per 1,000 people to 0.9.

This is slightly at odds with the Enumclaw Police Department’s 2022 crime stats, which shows that while property crimes have increased over the previous year (though was well within normal standards), violent crimes have been on a downward trend for numerous years.

This difference in conclusions could be due to slightly different definitions of what constitutes a violent crime. According to SafeWise, robbery constitutes as a violent crime; Enumclaw experienced three robberies last year and in 2021, up from two in 2020 and only one in 2019.

Overall, the 20 cities rated this year as the “most safe” only experience an average of 0.8 violent crime incidents per 1,000 people, which is 78% lower than the average violent crime rate across the state, according to SafeWise; the property crime rate average for these 20 cities is 15.1 incidents per 1,000 residents, less than half the state average.

Washington as a whole experiences a smaller violent crime rate ratio than the nation as a whole (3.4 per 1,000 people against 4), but a higher property crime rate ratio (31.3 per 1,000 people against 19.3).