Photo: Lauren Shufelberger · CC BY-SA 3.0Mena reports more crime per resident than 85% of U.S. towns
On crimes reported to the FBI by Mena’s police in 2023–2025, it grades C− for safety: #66 of 105 graded towns in Arkansas.
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 Mena
Among Arkansas towns, closer to the middle
Arkansas’ cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Mena’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 37% of the 105 Arkansas towns we grade, against 15% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
A college town
Mena is home to the University of Arkansas Community College Rich Mountain, with 587 students taking classes on campus (federal college data), and 2% 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 ↓
A job center
Mena has 3,760 jobs based in town for 5,607 residents (Census LEHD), so some reports involve people who work or shop there rather than residents. How to read it ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Mena’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; violent crime is the closer of the two to typical. Its violent rate (3.2) 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.
For every 1,000 residents, about 28 property crimes reported
And about 3 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
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.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Mena’s police reported 54 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 3.2 per 1,000 residents a year, against 6.9 in the rest of Arkansas and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Mena | Rest of Arkansas | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 3.7 | 7.8 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 3.4 | 7.5 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 3.7 | 6.9 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 2.5 | 6.2 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Reported crime is steady
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 Arkansas.
Show as a table
| Year | Mena property | Rest of Arkansas property | Mena violent | Rest of Arkansas violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 32.7 | 31.3 | 3.7 | 7.8 |
| 2023 | 31.0 | 28.8 | 3.4 | 7.5 |
| 2024 | 25.7 | 24.8 | 3.7 | 6.9 |
| 2025 | 28.2 | 20.5 | 2.5 | 6.2 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
172 crimes reported in 2025
14 violent and 158 property, as reported to the FBI by Mena’s police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
Four people died in crashes on Mena’s roads in 2019–2023
Mena had 4 fatal crashes in five years, in which four people died; 1 was a pedestrian.
That is about what is typical for Arkansas towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (10.1 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Mena’s size would see about 3 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Mena’s own rate (14.3) 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.
Mena and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mena | C− | 3.2 | 28.3 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Arkansas towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mena | C− | 3.2 | 28.3 |
| White Hall | B− | 2.5 | 9.4 |
| Walnut Ridge | C | 4.3 | 8.8 |
| Sheridan | C | 3.8 | 10.9 |
| Barling | C | 3.4 | 13.0 |
| Berryville | C | 2.2 | 20.6 |
The five graded Arkansas towns closest to Mena’s population (5,607), by grade.
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 Mena. 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 Mena’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (5,602 in 2025); our figure for Mena is 5,607 (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 Mena
Is Mena, AR safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Mena reports more crime per resident than 85% of U.S. towns, a C− Safety Grade and #66 of 105 in Arkansas. Its police reported 3.2 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 Mena?
3.2 violent and 28.3 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Arkansas reports 6.9 and 24.7; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is crime going up or down in Mena?
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings.
Who polices Mena?
Mena’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Mena”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Mena.
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
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.