How safe is the Swiss capital?
International polls rank Bern as one of the safest capital cities to live in on the planet. swissinfo.ch found out what it means to feel secure there.

As a content manager, I manage social media platforms for a Russian-speaking audience. My goal is to bring our reliable and balanced information across in the best way possible through texts, illustrations, and videos. I believe that multimedia is the future. I hold a diploma in Philology and a Masters degree in Media and Communication. I have worked for various print and digital media outlets in Russia and Switzerland. I joined the Russian-language editorial team of SWI swissinfo.ch at the time of its creation in 2013. I speak Russian, English, French and German.

I have a wealth of experience as a journalist working in Switzerland and enjoy producing videos, articles and podcasts on a range of subjects, recently focused mainly on politics and the environment. Born in the UK, I studied law at Nottingham University, then went on to attend the first-ever post-graduate radio journalism college in London. After working as a radio journalist in the UK and then Switzerland from 1984 to 1995, I returned to the UK to complete a post-graduate diploma in film at Bournemouth Film School. I have been working as a video journalist ever since.
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The city, with its thriving economy and excellent infrastructure, seems to offer a great quality of life. People appear to be pretty relaxed about personal safety, and burglar alarms on cars or houses are not commonplace. People often leave their belongings unattended while going for a swim in the pool or the river, while supermarkets leave goods outside the stores overnight.
From children to politicians, there’s a feeling in the air that Bern is a safe place to be, whether it’s about personal property or personal security.
Overall crime rates fell in 2016 by 2% compared with the year before, but the number of robberies increasedExternal link by 10%. While most people we talked to thought there was nothing to fear in the Swiss capital, one woman described an attack she experienced. Even so, Bern is statistically safer than Switzerland’s other cities, such as Geneva, Zurich, Lausanne and Basel, when it comes to violent crime. (Julie Hunt/Lioudmila Clot, swissinfo.ch)
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