The aim of the paper is to present selected aspects of territorial unit safety in the context of the created image and its impact on the residents and external stakeholders. Under conditions of growing competition between territorial units, image becomes an increasingly important factor in gaining competitive advantage. An element of importance for the image of cities and regions is their safety, which may be a decisive factor when choosing a place of living by potential residents, choosing a location for business, tourist destination, or a location for school or academic education. Due to a growing number of different types of threats, the safety of cities, regions, as well as the entire countries, becomes a condition for their development. Rankings of image-building potential of the cities of Poland allow to conclude that one of the safest cities is Rzeszów, which is confirmed not only by safety indices but also by highly positive assessments among residents of the analysed city.