Photo: themidnite (original), Yassie (derivative work · CC BY-SA 3.0Per resident, Florence records more violent crime than 91% of U.S. towns
Violence and property crime split as 5.6 violent crimes and 21.2 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents a year, beside 4.7 and 21.3 in the rest of Alabama. On crimes Florence’s police reported from 2023 to 2025, it grades D for safety: #85 of 130 graded towns in Alabama.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of AL” is every other Alabama city and town in the FBI’s tables; the U.S. figure is the FBI’s national estimate as published, averaged over the three years. The FBI publishes no national homicide or robbery rate in our data, so those compare with all U.S. cities and towns in its tables.
What stands out about safety in Florence
Among Alabama towns, closer to the middle
Alabama’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Florence’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 35% of the 130 Alabama towns we grade, against 13% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
A college town
Florence is home to the University of North Alabama, with 6,668 students taking classes on campus (federal college data), and 14% of residents are enrolled in college (Census). Students who live in town count as residents, so they are part of the per-resident rate. How to read it ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Florence’s grade
Property crimes plus four times violent crimes reported to the FBI per resident, 2023–2025, on a national curve. Both violent and property crime are higher than in most U.S. towns; property crime is the closer of the two to typical.
Crime in Florence per 1,000 residents
Violent crime per 1,000 residents, 2025
Property crime per 1,000 residents, 2025
Crimes reported to police in 2025 per resident; one person can be the victim of more than one, and some reports involve visitors.
And about 5 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Florence | Rest of Alabama | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 5.8 | 5.3 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 5.0 | 4.9 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 6.3 | 4.8 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 5.4 | 4.4 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Florence’s police reported 717 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 5.6 per 1,000 residents a year, against 4.7 in the rest of Alabama and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | Florence property | Rest of Alabama property | Florence violent | Rest of Alabama violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 26.5 | 24.8 | 5.8 | 5.3 |
| 2023 | 23.4 | 22.2 | 5.0 | 4.9 |
| 2024 | 20.2 | 21.8 | 6.3 | 4.8 |
| 2025 | 20.0 | 19.9 | 5.4 | 4.4 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2022–2025, against the rest of Alabama.
1,100 crimes reported in 2025
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
235 violent and 865 property, as reported to the FBI by Florence’s police.
Nine people died in crashes on Florence’s roads in 2019–2023
Florence had 9 fatal crashes in five years, in which nine people died; 2 were pedestrians.
That is fewer than is typical for Alabama towns of 25,000–100,000 people: at their median rate (9.5 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Florence’s size would see about 20 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Florence’s own rate (4.3) is context, not a ranking.
Deaths are counted where the crash happened, not where the people lived: a highway through town adds through-traffic deaths, and residents’ own risk on roads elsewhere isn’t here. Town rates sit below state and U.S. rates because a third of fatal crashes happen outside any town. Road safety is described here and is not part of the Safety Grade. Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2019–2023.
Florence and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florence | D | 5.6 | 21.2 |
| Underwood-Petersville | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Underwood-Petersville is an unincorporated community (a census-designated place) with no police department of its own.
Alabama towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florence | D | 5.6 | 21.2 |
| Vestavia Hills | A− | 0.8 | 6.9 |
| Alabaster | B− | 1.0 | 13.6 |
| Prattville | C | 2.5 | 18.3 |
| Opelika | D | 5.7 | 24.7 |
| Phenix City | D | 7.9 | 32.6 |
The five graded Alabama towns closest to Florence’s population (42,581), by grade.
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- It’s reported crime. Only incidents reported to and recorded by police appear here. Many crimes are never reported to police.
- One number for all of Florence. A town-wide rate doesn’t show where incidents happen, and that can differ a lot from one part of town to another.
- Visitors count too. Incidents involving people who work, shop or visit are counted against Florence’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (43,266 in 2025); our figure for Florence is 42,581 (2025 Census estimate).
- Gaps are real gaps. A missing year means the department didn’t report a full year, not that nothing happened.
How the grade is calculated, for every town: How TownRatings grades safety →
Questions about safety in Florence
Is Florence, AL safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Florence reports more crime per resident than 87% of U.S. towns, a D Safety Grade and #85 of 130 in Alabama. Its police reported 5.6 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 4.7 in the rest of Alabama and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Florence?
5.6 violent and 21.2 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Alabama reports 4.7 and 21.3; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
How many homicides were there in Florence in 2025?
Florence’s police reported 4 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 9.2 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Who polices Florence?
Florence’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Florence”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
Neighbors looking out for each other in Florence.
Crime: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Crime Data Explorer: offenses known to law enforcement by city, 2025, and state and national rates. Counts are crimes reported to police, not convictions. The Safety Grade is our own summary of that data, not an official rating. Road deaths: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2019–2023. This isn’t an official statement of public safety. In an emergency, call 911.