GUILDERLAND — The town of Guilderland was the only municipality in the Capital Region to make it onto an annual list, produced by a home-security company, of “50 Safest Cities in New York Report.”

Guilderland placed 44th on the list produced by SafeWise. It was evaluated as having 0.44 violent crimes per 1,000 people, and 19.59 property crimes. Meanwhile, the safest city in New York was named as Lewisboro, with its 0.00 violent crimes per 1,000 and its 0.16 property crimes.

Guilderland has the second-largest population — at 34,405 — among the 50 locations on the list, behind the town of Yorktown.

The safest city in New York was named as Lewisboro, with its 0.00 violent crimes per 1,000 and its 0.16 property crimes. Lewisboro was also ranked number one on the list of the 100 safest cities in the country.

Guilderland Police Chief Carol Lawlor was unsure just what to make of the listing.

“I got an email about it. I don’t know what it’s about, really,” she said.

She pointed out that Guilderland is not a city but a town and that the list is full of towns and villages. She wondered why Altamont wasn’t on the list.

Lawlor said Guilderland is very safe, and agreed with SafeWise’s assessment that noted the rate of violent crimes in Guilderland is much lower than property crimes.

“There are more property-type crimes — larcenies, burglaries, things like that — as opposed to assaults, attacks,” Lawlor said.

SafeWise defines property crimes as arson, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor-vehicle theft, and violent crime as aggravated assault, forcible rape, murder, and robbery.

According to Krystal Rogers of SafeWise, this is the fifth year that the company has listed safest cities in New York.

To produce the list, the company looks at crime reports that cities submit to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and uses a minimum population threshold, reporting only on municipalities with populations above that threshold, according to the SafeWise website. Cities that do not report to the FBI or that submit incomplete information would not be considered.

SafeWise evaluates ranks each municipality based on its violent-crime rate and, in the case of a tie, also considers the number of property crimes, its website says. To level the playing field for municipalities of varying populations, each is scored to reflect crimes per 1,000 residents.

The company also produces a list called “The 50 Most Dangerous Cities in the United States,” which in 2018 did not include any locations in New York State, and a “100 Safest Cities in the US.”

As Lawlor suggested, the word “cities” might seem like a misnomer. Many of the locations on the “100 Safest” and the “50 Safest Cities in New York” have populations of less than 10,000. Only nine out of 50 have populations higher than 20,000.

Rogers said the company uses a “pretty broad definition for ‘city,” and uses the word as a catch-all term for the purposes of the report. The company also issues a “Safest and Most Dangerous Metro Cities” to cover large urban cities with populations over 300,000, she said.

The population threshold for the report on New York’s safest cities was based, Rogers said, on an average population of 5,984.

SafeWise is an online safety resource that advocates for consumers, Rogers said, adding that the company “may earn money” when visitors click on certain links on the website.

The website also includes a number to call to speak to an agent about home security, and when The Enterprise phoned, an agent said the company can arrange for a home-security system through any of several companies, and effectively acts as a middleman in the transaction.