Two other Orange County cities – Lake Forest and Irvine – took spots ten and eleven. An unrelated analysis earlier this year placed Irvine as safest among big cities.

"It's not a competition, it's a celebration," said Irvine Police Lt. Rick Handfield. "We're proud to be linked with other communities in our region that share working hard to be a safe community. The report is another slice at the same statistics reported to the FBI in June where Irvine was the safest city when considering violent crimes per capita when compared with other cities of 100,000 or more."

The just-released study – done by CQ Press, a unit of the congressional Quarterly Inc. – looked at 378 cities with at least 75,000 people. Its rankings were based on per-capita rates for homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft. Each crime category was considered separately and weighted on its seriousness.

The FBI, however, cautions groups not to use the data it publishes as a way to rank cities.

These rankings, according to FBI.com, provide no insight into the variables that affect crime in a particular jurisdiction. The agency is concerned that the rankings lead to "simplistic and/or incomplete analyses" that can create misleading perceptions of communities.

Still for Orange County Sheriff's Lt. Steve Bernardi, chief of police services in Mission Viejo, the news couldn't be better.

"It's a great honor and accomplishment," he said. "The most important thing is that the people who live here, the business owners and people who work in Mission Viejo are safe. That's the big story, that's the most important."

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