SEATTLE — Seattle is among the safest major cities in the United States to visit or live in, according to data from a Gallup Poll published Monday.
Only Dallas (74%) and Boston (72%) were given higher marks in Gallup's Poll than Seattle, which had 63% of respondents saying it is safe.
Detroit and Chicago received the lowest scores, as just 26% and 27% of respondents respectively said the cities were safe.
Gallup added in its report that the partisanship of respondents nationwide heavily affected their determination of whether a city was safe.
When it came to Seattle, 85% of Democrat or Democratic-leaning Independents believe the city is safe. On the other hand, just 42% of Republicans or Republican-leaning Independents said the Emerald City was safe.
Seattle was tied with Los Angeles for the largest gap between responses of Democrat and Republican voters, with a 43 percentage point difference between the parties.
The national perception of Seattle's safety also has changed significantly in recent years, as 17% more respondents believed the city was safe when a poll with the same group of cities was conducted in 2006.
This comes just a few days after a mass shooting in Seattle's Mount Baker neighborhood when gunfire at a Hookah Lounge left three people dead and six others injured.
"That's why we're seeing more victims," said Adrian Diaz, Seattle police chief. "More bullets are being fired. This year we've recovered over 4,000 shell casings."
In 2022, Seattle had 52 homicides for the entire year. As of Aug. 29, there have been 49.
However, the city also saw huge numbers of travelers from all over the world visit for the MLB All-Star Game and a pair of Taylor Swift's "Eras Tour" shows at Lumen Field. Swift's performance even generated seismic activity exponentially higher than the waves created after Marshawn Lynch's "Beast Quake" run.
