Four Bay State beaches and one beach in Maine topped the list of beaches nationwide with the lowest levels of theft-related crime, a new study has found.
The study by The Action Network analyzed property crime data from over 520 U.S. beach-area zip codes. It measured the data, including theft, robbery, vehicle theft, and burglary, all per 1,000 residents.
The findings?
Four Massachusetts beaches — three on Cape Cod and one on Nantucket — rank in the top five in the country with the lowest risk of theft, with all reporting theft rates under 2.5 per 1,000 residents.
The Massachusetts beaches topping the list of beaches nationwide with the lowest levels of theft-related crime are:
- No. 1: The Cape Cod National Seashore, which spans across the towns of Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, Eastham, Orleans and Chatham, and Marconi Beach in Wellfleet share the top spot, each with an implied theft probability of just 0.95%, supported by low rates of theft (1.62), robbery (0.29), vehicle theft (0.47), and burglary (1.23) per 1,000 residents.
- No. 3: Old Silver Beach in Falmouth, which has a low robbery rate of 0.21 per 1,000 residents.
- No. 4: Siasconset Beach on Nantucket, with a theft rate of 2.07 per 1,000 residents.
“What makes Massachusetts beaches stand out is their consistency across all property crime categories,” a spokesperson from The Action Network said in a statement.
“From Cape Cod to Nantucket, these locations don’t just have low theft rates — they also report low instances of robbery, vehicle theft, and burglary, which collectively contribute to their top rankings,“ the spokesperson said. ”That kind of well-rounded safety profile is what makes them truly exceptional.”
In Maine, Reid State Park ranked No. 9 among beaches with the lowest risk of theft.
Reid State Park has the lowest robbery rate in the nation — at just 0.08 per 1,000 residents — contributing to its low implied theft probability of 1.47%, the study found.
Florida also had seven beaches in the top 10, with most of the beaches there showing very low vehicle theft and burglary rates, highlighting safer conditions in parts of the state’s Gulf and Atlantic coasts.
California, North Carolina, and Hawaii account for over 80% of the top 20 highest-risk beach areas, the study found, “pointing to a clear concentration of theft risk across multiple coastal locations within these states.”
A link to the study can be found here.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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