Photo: Please attribute this image as the work of "DiscoverWithDima." · CC BY-SA 4.0Gulf Shores records more violent crime per head than 78% of U.S. towns
The rate the grade counts dropped 24% from 2023 to 2025. Even so, on crimes Gulf Shores’ police reported from 2023 to 2025, it grades C− for safety: #61 of 130 graded towns in Alabama. Violence and property crime split as 3.5 violent crimes and 18.8 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents a year, beside 4.7 and 21.3 in the rest of 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 Gulf Shores
1 of the 2 graded towns next door reports less crime
Of the 2 Alabama towns on Gulf Shores’ borders, 2 have a Safety Grade: Foley (C+), Orange Beach (C−). Neighbors ↓
Among Alabama towns, closer to the middle
Alabama’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Gulf Shores’ place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 53% of the 130 Alabama towns we grade, against 23% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
Reported crime is falling
Crime reported per resident fell from 2023 to 2025 by more than ordinary year-to-year swings, on the grade’s own score. Trend ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Gulf Shores’ 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. Its violent rate (3.5) is below the FBI’s national estimate (3.6) but higher than in most individual towns: the national figure is weighted by people, and the grade counts towns.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Gulf Shores property | Rest of Alabama property | Gulf Shores violent | Rest of Alabama violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 24.2 | 24.8 | 3.3 | 5.4 |
| 2023 | 21.5 | 22.3 | 4.9 | 4.9 |
| 2024 | 17.9 | 21.8 | 2.9 | 4.8 |
| 2025 | 17.1 | 19.9 | 2.9 | 4.4 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2022–2025, against the rest of Alabama.
Crime in Gulf Shores 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 3 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 | Gulf Shores | Rest of Alabama | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 3.3 | 5.4 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 4.9 | 4.9 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 2.9 | 4.8 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 2.9 | 4.4 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Gulf Shores’ police reported 184 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 3.5 per 1,000 residents a year, against 4.7 in the rest of Alabama and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
359 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.
52 violent and 307 property, as reported to the FBI by Gulf Shores’ police.
14 people died in crashes on Gulf Shores’s roads in 2019–2023
Gulf Shores had 13 fatal crashes in five years, in which 14 people died; 3 were pedestrians and 1 was a cyclist.
That is 17.1 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for Alabama towns of 5,000–25,000 people (9.6, 96 towns).
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.
Gulf Shores and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gulf Shores | C− | 3.5 | 18.8 |
| Orange Beach | C− | 4.3 | 19.0 |
| Foley | C+ | 1.9 | 13.7 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Alabama towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gulf Shores | C− | 3.5 | 18.8 |
| Saraland | B− | 0.9 | 16.4 |
| Gardendale | C | 2.3 | 18.0 |
| Muscle Shoals | C− | 2.2 | 25.3 |
| Millbrook | C− | 2.2 | 30.7 |
| Troy | D | 5.0 | 30.8 |
The five graded Alabama towns closest to Gulf Shores’ population (17,394), 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 Gulf Shores. 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 Gulf Shores’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (17,993 in 2025); our figure for Gulf Shores is 17,394 (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 Gulf Shores
Is Gulf Shores, AL safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Gulf Shores reports more crime per resident than 77% of U.S. towns, a C− Safety Grade and #61 of 130 in Alabama. Its police reported 3.5 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 Gulf Shores?
3.5 violent and 18.8 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.
Is Gulf Shores safer than Orange Beach?
Orange Beach reports more crime per resident than Gulf Shores: Orange Beach grades C− for safety and Gulf Shores C−. Orange Beach’s police reported 4.3 violent and 19.0 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Gulf Shores?
Gulf Shores’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Gulf Shores”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
Neighbors looking out for each other in Gulf Shores.
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.