(Photo By Flickr User Doug Pieper)

Morton doesn’t have a reputation as being a hotbed of crime. A recent ranking from a safety and home-security website appears to confirm that.

The Tazewell County village ranks 41st among the 50 safest municipalities in Illinois, according to SafeWise. The rankings are based on the 2015 FBI crime report, then are adjusted and scored to reflect crimes per 1,000 residents.

Morton averages 0.48 violent crimes and 7.55 property crimes per 1,000 residents, SafeWise stated. The average rates among the safest 50 were 86 percent lower than the national average in violent crime and 77 percent below in property crime.

Among violent crimes are aggravated assault, murder, rape and robbery. Property crimes include arson, burglary and motor-vehicle theft.

The safest 50 reported a total of one murder, 67 robberies,state and fewer than 300 aggravated assaults, according to SafeWise.

Morton has about 16,000 residents. SafeWise did not consider municipalities with populations of less than 5,000.

The No. 1 municipality in the SafeWise rankings is Inverness, a northwest suburb of Chicago. The village of about 7,500 reported no violent crimes and a property-crime rate of 1.05 per 1,000 residents.

Morton was the only Journal Star-area location among the top 50. Others in downstate Illinois were Waterloo (2), Mascoutah (15), Mount Zion (23), Charleston (27), Pinckneyville (29), Monticello (30), Mahomet (34), Greenville (40), Troy (44), and Chatham (47).

(Information courtesy of pjstar.com)