According to a report commissioned by insurance providers, so far the safest US city in 2012 is Mesa, Arizona. There have been other similar reports in recent years, which all put Mesa at or near the top. Generally Arizona is considered a safe state; two of the other top 10 safest cities (Tucson and Phoenix) are also in Arizona.

It's Arizona's third largest city with a population of almost half a million, but it can also be defined as a suburb of Phoenix; it's only 20 miles from Phoenix and a lot of the inhabitants of Mesa commute to the larger city to work.

However, according to Forbes the safest city is Plano, Texas, another suburban city not far from Dallas, with Mesa only at no. 7. According to Forbes, safe cities tend to be quite well off, have relatively high taxes - so that the infrastructure is looked after - and have high levels of citizen involvement in running the area.