Making communities safer is an important concern for many Dutchess County residents. It now ranks fourth on the list of residents’ priorities up from eighth five years ago. On average, residents rate the priority of making their community safer with a score of 7.7 out of 10.
Residents of Dutchess County place greater emphasis on safety than the average Mid-Hudson Valley resident. Making communities safer ranks just eighth among the region as a whole, and Dutchess County is the only one of the seven counties included in the larger study in which safety appears among the top five local priorities.
Dutchess County residents are more concerned about safety in their community than they were five years ago. In 2002, the issue received an average score of 7.3 from county residents. Today, safety receives an average rating of 7.7 among residents in the county. The increase of four-tenths of a point since 2002 reflects the greatest shift in average score on this issue among the six counties studied five years ago.
