Covington ranks in Louisiana's safest cities

SafeWise ranked Covington third in its “Louisiana’s Safest Cities of 2026” list published January 29, placing the St. Tammany Parish city behind Harahan and Addis. The company said its annual state rankings draw on the most recent FBI crime data available, which for the 2026 lists covered calendar year 2024. Covington appeared ahead of Mandeville, DeRidder, Broussard, Baker, Slidell, Zachary and Carencro in the Louisiana top 10. The SafeWise report said Louisiana as a whole remained above the national average in both violent and property crime. It listed a statewide violent crime rate of 9.12 incidents per 1,000 people, versus a national average of 4.43, and a statewide property crime rate of 36.33 per 1,000 people, versus 22.89 nationally. ### Where did Covington land, exactly? (safewise.com) Covington ranked No. 3 in Louisiana for 2026, up from No. 5 a year earlier, according to figures cited by USA Today’s Louisiana network from the SafeWise report. The outlet said Covington’s violent crime rate was 1.8 per 1,000 residents and its property crime rate was 10.2 per 1,000 residents. (safewise.com) The city had 11,564 residents at the 2020 Census, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That makes Covington much smaller than many Louisiana population centers, a point that matters because SafeWise ranks cities on per-capita crime rates rather than raw totals. ### How does SafeWise build these lists? SafeWise said its 2026 safest-city rankings were based on the latest FBI crime data available and that cities missing from the report either fell below its population threshold or did not submit a complete crime report. (fantasy.usatoday.com) In its national 2026 roundup, the company said the rankings use weighted safety scores tied to violent and property crime rates. (data.census.gov) The FBI said its Uniform Crime Reporting program collects crime statistics from more than 19,000 law enforcement agencies and publishes them through the Crime Data Explorer. SafeWise’s 2026 national report said the underlying dataset for that year covered calendar year 2024. ### What else do local crime numbers show around Covington? The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office said in January 2026 that reported crimes across its nine tracked categories fell from 2,567 in 2024 to 2,058 in 2025 in unincorporated parts of the parish. (safewise.com) Sheriff Randy Smith said the agency’s 2025 figures showed “a continued decline in crime throughout unincorporated St. Tammany Parish.” (ucr.fbi.gov) Smith said violent-crime clearances reached 95.1% in 2025, compared with a national average of 44%, while nonviolent-crime clearances were 52.5% versus 16% nationally. Those sheriff’s office figures do not represent Covington city alone, but they provide a broader parish backdrop for a city that sits inside St. Tammany Parish. ### Why do smaller Louisiana cities dominate the list? (stpso.com) SafeWise’s Louisiana top 10 was made up largely of smaller municipalities, including Harahan, Addis, Covington and Mandeville. The company’s methodology emphasizes reported crime rates per 1,000 residents, which can elevate smaller places with lower incident counts and complete FBI reporting. (stpso.com) Louisiana residents also reported high concern about safety in SafeWise’s survey. The company said only 34% of Louisianans said they felt safe in the state, down from 36% a year earlier, even as its survey found first-hand property-crime experiences declining. ### Where can readers check the ranking themselves? SafeWise’s January 29, 2026 Louisiana report remains the primary published source for the ranking and the full top-10 list. (safewise.com) The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer and local releases from the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office provide the underlying public-crime context that readers can use to compare future updates.