By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
AUG. 16, 2024 | Two of Gwinnett cities are among the safest suburbs to live in the nation, according to SmartAsset’s ranking.
The City of Dacula ranks sixth safest, and the City of Buford is right behind it as seventh safest place to live in the top 360 suburbs in the nation. Interestingly, neither Georgia city has a police force, but relies on the Gwinnett County Police Department for such services.
SmartAsset is a financial technology company, founded in July 2012 and headquartered in New York, N.Y. The company publishes articles, guides, reviews, calculators and tools to help people make decisions about personal finance. The company’s free and interactive tools help readers make smarter decisions on home buying, refinance, retirement, life insurance, taxes and investing, SmartAsset released its safest suburban cities list this week. To read its findings, go to https://smartasset.com/data-studies/americas-safest-suburbs-2024.
This is the second year in a row that Dacula has been on the safe suburbs list. In 2023, it was ranked the ninth’s safest suburb. It is the first year for Buford being among the safe suburb list.
King
Dacula Mayor Trey King says his city is proud to be so recognized. He says Dacula is safe because of the “cooperative effort of the good people who live here, along with the support of the Gwinnett County police and our two-man marshal force.”
At one time, perhaps as far back as the 40s, 50s, 60s, Dacula had a police chief. King says: “He was my wife’s great uncle, Finas Rooks. I’ve got a picture of him standing next to a 1962 Chevrolet Impala. Mary Dawn is my wife, and her grandmother used to cook for prisoners held overnight without bond. Whatever she was serving is what they had. I don’t know the year the police force was disbanded, but today we get great assistance and patrolling from Gwinnett police.”
Buford had its own police force until 1975, when the city commissioners decided it would close its police force because of its mounting cost, and concentrate its city taxes on its own independent school district.
Beard
Buford Commission Chairman Phillip Beard remembers the year well. “I had just got elected, and the year before, the people of Buford voted to keep their schools separate, and not join the Gwinnett County system. The police department was costing us something like $300,000 a year, and our cost for the schools that year was $178,000.
“Back then we had 22 policemen. We kept the police chief on as the city marshal. We gave all the police equipment, land and facilities to the county, for the county to police our city. In the 49 years since then, we have saved our taxpayers millions by not having a police force. Having city police has never been on the agenda here since then. We are most happy with the county patrolling our city.”
Former County Commission Chairman Wayne Mason remembers: “Many cities don’t need to have their own police and fire departments. In effect, if you had those city departments, it would be hard to justify it, since it would be a duplicated service. Many city police departments are heavy with local politics, job creation and power. You don’t need overlapping services.”
Eventually, the county also provided other services to cities and the entire county, including libraries and recreation.
Below are the 10 safest suburbs of 2024, according to SmartAsset’s rankings:
- Lehi, Utah
- Bethesda, Maryland
- Layton, Utah
- Rockville, Maryland
- Great Falls, Virginia
- Dacula, Georgia
- Buford, Georgia
- Elmhurst, Illinois
- Oak Brook, Illinois
- Edgewater, New Jersey
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