Missouri Town Unexpectedly Soars into Top 20 Most Dangerous List

If you told me that a Missouri city would appear in the top 20 most dangerous cities list for 2024, I would have guessed Saint Louis or Kansas City since they commonly appear in crime lists unfortunately. It's neither of those places that has suddenly soared into the worst city list in America.

This new list was compiled using the most recent FBI data. It's just been shared today by 24/7 Wall St as they named the new top 20 most dangerous towns in America. They say they "included only violent crime rates per 1000 residents". It's simple metrics to decide which American places have the biggest violent crime problems.

Which Missouri town soared onto this top 20 most dangerous list unexpectedly?

It's surprisingly Springfield, Missouri now the 18th most dangerous town in America. Look at these numbers:

Violent crime rate: 15.6 per 1,000 residents
Poverty rate: 20.3%

What has happened to this part of southwestern Missouri? My family used to vacation in the Springfield area all the time and it was such a family-friendly area. I'll admit it's been years since I've traveled through there, but this new reality shocks me.

I became aware that the Springfield, Missouri I knew had changed when suddenly the town was being featured on special episodes of COPS.

I've seen Springfield, Missouri mentioned after Saint Louis and Kansas City in these "most dangerous" lists, but never instead of. This is something new and not for the better. I do hope to venture to Springfield sometime in the near future and will report back what I find which is hopefully something much better than this.