Alarms.org has released their ranking of the safest cities in California. Benicia comes in as 17th out of 263 cities ranked.

"This ranking reflects the amazing dedication of our police department staff and the commitment of this community to the safety of those who live, work and visit our city," said Chief of Police Erik Upson, Benicia Police Department. "The police department's three pillars play a key role in how we work to fight crime. These pillars consist of community engagement, rapid and effective response to crimes in progress, and relentlessness in the pursuit of justice. Although our police personnel are out there working hard to uphold the law, there is no question that we could not have done this without the support of our active and engaged citizens. This is truly what makes our city so special."

According to Alarms.org, California is in the lower half of states in terms of safety when looking at statewide crime rates. The Golden State's violent crime rate of 4.47 is 21% higher than the national average, and its property crime rate is also higher than the national level at 28.04 crime rate per 1,000 and 1.71 law enforcement per 1,000.

However, with a state as large and diverse as California, there's bound to be a high variance in crime rates and other characteristics between the state's cities. Sure enough, California's safest cities performed very well in both major crime categories: violent crimes and non-violent crimes.

The methodology used evaluated the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics to determine the crime rate for cities with at population over 10,000 and data from 2,831 law enforcement agencies used to determine police adequacy. The two variables were combined to create a safety score for each city.