Photo: Brandonrush · CC BY-SA 3.0Per resident, Hot Springs records more crime than 95% of U.S. towns
The yearly rates were 5.2 violent crimes and 45.2 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents, set against 6.9 and 24.3 in the rest of Arkansas. Still, it has more violent crime than 89% of U.S. towns, and more property crime than 97%. Graded on crimes Hot Springs’ police reported from 2023 to 2025, it scores D for safety: #86 of 105 graded towns in Arkansas. The graded rate fell 41% from 2023 to 2025.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of AR” is every other Arkansas 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 Hot Springs
Among Arkansas towns, closer to the middle
Arkansas’ cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Hot Springs’ place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 18% of the 105 Arkansas towns we grade, against 5% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
A job center
Hot Springs has 25,752 jobs based in town for 37,979 residents (Census LEHD), so some reports involve people who work or shop there rather than residents. How to read it ↓
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 Hot Springs’ 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; violent crime is the closer of the two to typical.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Hot Springs property | Rest of Arkansas property | Hot Springs violent | Rest of Arkansas violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 58.6 | 30.7 | 5.1 | 7.9 |
| 2023 | 60.2 | 28.2 | 5.2 | 7.5 |
| 2024 | 41.6 | 24.4 | 5.3 | 6.9 |
| 2025 | 33.8 | 20.2 | 5.0 | 6.2 |
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 Arkansas.
Crime in Hot Springs 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 | Hot Springs | Rest of Arkansas | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 5.1 | 7.9 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 5.2 | 7.5 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 5.3 | 6.9 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 5.0 | 6.2 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Hot Springs’ police reported 591 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 5.2 per 1,000 residents a year, against 6.9 in the rest of Arkansas and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
1,473 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.
191 violent and 1,282 property, as reported to the FBI by Hot Springs’ police.
33 people died in crashes on Hot Springs’s roads in 2019–2023
Hot Springs had 32 fatal crashes in five years, in which 33 people died; 7 were pedestrians and 1 was a cyclist.
That is 17.4 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for Arkansas towns of 25,000–100,000 people (9.8, 18 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.
Hot Springs and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hot Springs | D | 5.2 | 45.2 |
| Piney | — | — | — |
| Lake Hamilton | — | — | — |
| Rockwell | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Piney, Lake Hamilton and Rockwell are unincorporated communities (census-designated places) with no police department of their own.
Arkansas towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hot Springs | D | 5.2 | 45.2 |
| Bella Vista | B+ | 1.7 | 4.1 |
| Benton | C− | 4.4 | 22.3 |
| Sherwood | D | 6.0 | 20.6 |
| Paragould | D | 8.1 | 30.9 |
| Pine Bluff | D− | 15.4 | 43.6 |
The five graded Arkansas towns closest to Hot Springs’ population (37,979), 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 Hot Springs. 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 Hot Springs’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (37,980 in 2025); our figure for Hot Springs is 37,979 (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 Hot Springs
Is Hot Springs, AR safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Hot Springs reports more crime per resident than 95% of U.S. towns, a D Safety Grade and #86 of 105 in Arkansas. Its police reported 5.2 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 6.9 in the rest of Arkansas and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Hot Springs?
5.2 violent and 45.2 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Arkansas reports 6.9 and 24.3; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
How many homicides were there in Hot Springs in 2025?
Hot Springs’s police reported 5 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 13.2 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Who polices Hot Springs?
Hot Springs’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Hot Springs”. 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 Hot Springs.
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.