A Safe Clean and Livable City

Sub-Theme: Franklin will have safe neighborhoods supported by high‐quality police, fire, and emergency services as well as effective code enforcement.

Having a safe, clean, and livable city is a primary requisite for our citizens and they are supportive of the means necessary to assure the idyllic yet progressive character of Franklin. Residents want to live healthier, sustainable lives and will support services that deliver high standards. Franklin takes pride in the professionalism and quality of our police, fire, and emergency response teams. We understand the importance of code enforcement as a means of precluding declining and unsafe neighborhoods and business districts. The City recognizes its role as a steward of the environment as we deliver essential services while preserving the natural beauty of the community.

There are five goals contained within this sub-theme:

The Franklin Police Department will establish performance standards that help surpass current levels of low crime.

Goal: The violent crime rate in Franklin will be below 50% of the national violent crime rate.

As shown above and to the right, violent crime rates in the City of Franklin are significantly below that of the nation as a whole. Consistently, Franklin is ranked as one of the safest places to live in the state of Tennessee and the data backs this up. This is not to say that violent crimes do not occur in Franklin, but they certainly do occur in fewer numbers than regionally or nationally. Through the first five years of data shown, the City is continuing to meet the target of reducing the overall rate of violent crimes from the baseline set in CY 2011 by keeping the rate below 50% of the national rate.

For more on the Franklin Police Department, please click here.

Please note: 2019 data is the latest data available from the Uniform Criminal Reports, Federal Bureau of Investigation. There will always be a several year lag in the information when reporting crime statistics.

Benchmarks: The National Violent Crime Rate for CY 2019 was 367 per 100,000 residents. Minimum 50% target rate was 183 per 100,000 residents. The Violent Crime Rate in Franklin was 165 per 100,000 residents.  (FBI, Crime in America, Uniform Crime Report).

Goal: The property crime rate in Franklin will be below 50% of the national property crime rate.

As shown above and to the right, property crime rates in the City of Franklin are significantly below that of the nation as a whole. Consistently, Franklin is ranked as one of the safest places to live in the state of Tennessee and the data backs this up. This is not to say that property crimes do not occur in Franklin, but they certainly do occur in fewer numbers than regionally or nationally. Through the first three years of data shown, the City is continuing to meet the target of reducing the overall rate of property crimes from the baseline set in CY 2011 by keeping the rate below 50% of the national rate.

Please note: 2019 data is the latest data available from the Uniform Criminal Reports, Federal Bureau of Investigation. There will always be a several year lag in the information when reporting crime statistics.

Benchmarks: The Property Crime Rate Nationally was 2,110 per 100,000 residents. The minimum 50% target rate was 1055 per 100,000 residents. The Property Crime Rate in Franklin was 1,329 per 100,000 residents.  (FBI, Crime in America, Uniform Crime Report).
Goal: Franklin Police will establish a clearance rate that is 1.5 times the national average for both property crimes and violent crimes.

As important a measure as overall crime rates are, the effectiveness of our criminal justice system is also measured by the clearance rate. The clearance rate is a measure of crimes solved by law enforcement. It is calculated by dividing the number of crimes that are "cleared" (a charge being laid) by the total number of crimes recorded.

Franklin has set a goal to have a clearance rate which is at least 1.5x the national average for both property crimes and violent crimes. As the charts below show, the City has not achieved this goal for clearing violent crimes, but has repeatedly for clearing property crimes.

Please note: 2019 data is the latest data available from the Uniform Criminal Reports, Federal Bureau of Investigation. There will always be a several year lag in the information when reporting crime statistics.

Benchmarks: The National Clearance Rate for Violent Crimes in CY 2019 was 45.5%. The Violent Crime Clearance in Franklin was 58.3%. The 1.5x target rate was 68.3%.  (FBI, Crime in America, Uniform Crime Report).

Benchmarks: The National Property Crime Clearance rate in CY 2019 was 17.2%. The 1.5x target rate was 25.8%.  The Property Crime Clearance rate in Franklin was 37.4% (FBI, Crime in America, Uniform Crime Report).

Goal: The Franklin Fire Department will provide a response time among the top quartile of Tennessee Benchmark cities.

The most common measure of fire services is a measurement of response time. Response time - the time it takes to respond to a call for service - has two components: the time it takes for the call to be dispatched, and the time it takes for a crew once dispatched to travel from the station to the location of the call. The data shown below includes both components of response time.

The City has aggressively set a response time goal in the top quartile of all benchmarked Tennessee communities*. This goal has never been reached in the last ten years, and in only one situation has response time been below the average for benchmarked communities. This is not necessarily and indication that the Franklin Fire Department is underperforming; indeed benchmarked data always requires further explanation. It maybe that the average data from other Tennessee communities included cities with very short response times which can skew the average response time and certainly lower the times which qualify in the top quartile of responses. It is also the case that the City of Franklin has many mitigating circumstances, including but not limited to: the ever growing boundaries of the community, the limitations of the transportation network, distribution of fire stations and mutual aid calls into areas of Williamson County.

*Data pre-2019 comes from the Tennessee Municipal Benchmarking Project. Data after comes from the Benchmarking Alliance of Tennessee.

Baseline: Average Total Response Time in 2012 was 5.49 minutes (Source: Computer Aided Dispatch Data) – (This metric captures total response time form the receipt of the call by dispatch until the first fire unit arrives on the scene for the designated period.)

Goal: The Franklin Fire Department will reduce property fire loss per $1 million of appraised value.

Another important measure for evaluating the impact of fire services beyond response time when a fire occurs is the amount of property damage caused by fires. If a fire can be responded to and put out quickly, the amount of property damage can be minimized. With the exception of 2015, the City of Franklin has averaged $203 of property loss per $1,000,000 of Appraised Value since FY 2005. Four years, FY 2005, 2008, 2011, and 2015 witnessed significantly higher rates of property loss compared to other years.

On a positive note, (with the exception of 2015), property fire loss since FY 2011 has been at its lowest consistent level in a decade - averaging only $81.68 of loss per $1,000,000 of appraised value. The FY 2019 value of $20.55 of loss per $1,000,000 of appraised value is below the the norm. Data for FY 2020 is forth coming. 

For more information about the Franklin Fire Department, please click here.

Baseline: Fire Loss per $1 million of Appraised Value was $87.26 in 2012. – (This measures fire loss in dollars per $1 million of appraised value of real and personal property in the covered district. The appraised value reflects tax records, which have exempt properties shown with $0 value.)

Note: 2015 amount significantly higher due to the loss of the bridge at Peytonsville Road and I-65.