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Mission Viejo, Lake Forest, Irvine Named Among Top 10 Safest Cities

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — A report released Monday ranked three Orange County cities among the top 10 safest cities in the nation.

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KNX 1070's Chris Sedens Reports

Mission Viejo, Lake Forest and Irvine were awarded the lofty honors, alongside cities like Colonie, NY; O'Fallon Mo.; Clarkstown, NY; Amherst NY; and Newton, Mass.

The report also designated the nation's top 10 most dangerous cities, which included Compton.

The crime rankings are calculated using six crime categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft. The rankings include all cities of at least 75,000 residents that reported crime data to the FBI in the six categories for calendar year 2009.

The publishing company acknowledged that its rankings "are considered by some in the law enforcement community as controversial."

On the "safe city" list, Los Angeles ranked 243rd, Long Beach 263rd, Santa Monica 148th, Burbank 94th, Glendale 34th, Pasadena 111th, Anaheim 121st, Santa Ana 205th and Newport Beach 31st.

"Annual rankings not only allow for comparisons among different states and cities, but also enable leaders to track their communities' crime trends from one year to the next," according to the company.

The full list is available online.

(©2010 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)

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