Many American cities have long been known for crime, but while White House rhetoric reinforces this lingering image, recent data often show that these reputations are outdated.
Homicide rates did increase across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic, but in 2025, rates receded 21% compared to 2024—one of the largest declines in American history.
Despite this, in the summer of 2025, President Donald Trump deployed National Guard troops into Los Angeles, which was later deemed illegal by a federal judge in September 2025. Troops also invaded Washington D.C., some armed, to respond to the "crime emergency," according to the executive order that cited violent crime and homelessness.
For a risk reality check, Stacker ranked the most dangerous U.S. cities using WalletHub's 2025 rankings. WalletHub's methodology compared 182 cities, defining safety by risks to home and community, natural disasters, and finances. It evaluated safety on a 100-point scale, with 1 being the most dangerous, and ranked the cities according to their total score. Natural disaster risks included risks like earthquakes and wildfires; the home and community safety category was weighted by factors such as murders, assaults, and drug poisoning deaths. Financial safety risks included aspects like unemployment rates, the rate of uninsured people, and fraud.
The cities named in the crime crackdown were not always consistent with crime data or WalletHub's list. For instance, though President Trump extended the National Guard's presence in Washington, D.C. until the end of 2026, the city has the lowest violent crime rate in over 30 years and ranked #11 by WalletHub.
Certain states appear more frequently on WalletHub's list than others; Florida appears three times, while Texas, California, Ohio, and Tennessee each have two cities on the list. States like Texas with higher ratings may reflect multiple safety issues that could stem from policy, like lax firearm laws, to geography, such as being located in the Tornado Alley region.
