TRENTON, N.J. – Camden has been named the nation’s most-dangerous city, snatching the top spot from Detroit, according to a company’s annual ranking based on crime statistics.

Officials in Camden, which was ranked third last year, downplayed the dubious designation Sunday, saying many steps have already been taken to reduce crime in the city.

“We must give our people jobs, training and opportunity,” said City Councilman Ali Sloan-El, who pointed out that Camden’s poverty is an important contributing factor to its high crime rate. Atlanta, St. Louis, and Gary, Ind. rounded out the top five in the most dangerous city rankings, which were released yesterday by Morgan Quitno Corp. The company puts out “City Crime Rankings,” an annual reference book that will be published next month. Detroit fell to second in this year’s list.

Some cities, such as Hartford, Conn., are disputing the rankings based on claims that the crime statistics are incomplete. Also, omissions by St. Louis police reports uncovered at a later date would put St. Louis at third most dangerous instead of fourth.

The news wasn’t all bleak for New Jersey. The state’s Brick Township was rated the second-safest city for the third straight year, behind only Newton, Mass., while the Garden State’s Dover Township came in ranked in the 10th slot.

The other communities in the top five were Amherst, N.Y., which had been ranked as the safest city for the past four years, followed by Mission Viejo, Calif., and Clarkstown, N.Y.

The rankings look at the rate for six crime categories: Murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and auto theft.

It compares 350 cities with populations of 75,000 or more that reported crime data to the FBI. Final 2003 statistics, released by the FBI in October, were used to determine the rankings.