Rev. John Ely House · Photo: Magicpiano · CC BY-SA 4.0Bethel reports less crime per resident than 91% of U.S. towns
On crimes reported to the FBI by Bethel’s police in 2023–2025, it grades A for safety: #8 of 90 graded towns in Connecticut.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of CT” is every other Connecticut 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 Bethel
1 of the 3 graded towns next door reports less crime
Of the 4 Connecticut towns on Bethel’s borders, 3 have a Safety Grade: Redding (A+), Brookfield (A−), Danbury (B−). Newtown has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025. Neighbors ↓
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 Bethel’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 lower than in most U.S. towns; violent crime is the stronger of the two.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Bethel’s police reported 10 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 0.2 per 1,000 residents a year, against 1.5 in the rest of Connecticut and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Bethel | Rest of Connecticut | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 0.2 | 1.7 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 0.0 | 1.2 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Reported crime is falling
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 Connecticut.
Show as a table
| Year | Bethel property | Rest of Connecticut property | Bethel violent | Rest of Connecticut violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 7.1 | 16.8 | 0.2 | 1.7 |
| 2023 | 4.6 | 17.2 | 0.3 | 1.7 |
| 2024 | 5.3 | 15.5 | 0.1 | 1.5 |
| 2025 | 3.9 | 12.6 | 0.0 | 1.2 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
For every 1,000 residents, about 4 property crimes reported
And no 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.
86 crimes reported in 2025
1 violent and 85 property, as reported to the FBI by Bethel’s police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
Two people died in crashes on Bethel’s roads in 2019–2023
Bethel had 2 fatal crashes in five years, in which two people died; 1 was a pedestrian.
That is fewer than is typical for Connecticut towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (7.5 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Bethel’s size would see about 8 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Bethel’s own rate (1.9) 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.
Bethel and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bethel | A | 0.2 | 4.6 |
| Danbury | B− | 2.1 | 11.4 |
| Redding | A+ | 0.2 | 3.0 |
| Brookfield | A− | 0.5 | 5.9 |
| Newtown | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Newtown has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025.
Connecticut towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bethel | A | 0.2 | 4.6 |
| New Canaan | A | 0.1 | 6.3 |
| Guilford | B+ | 0.2 | 9.3 |
| Watertown | B | 0.5 | 11.7 |
| Rocky Hill | B | 0.7 | 13.7 |
| Bloomfield | C+ | 0.8 | 21.4 |
The five graded Connecticut towns closest to Bethel’s population (21,682), 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 Bethel. 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 Bethel’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (21,793 in 2025); our figure for Bethel is 21,682 (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 Bethel
Is Bethel, CT safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Bethel reports less crime per resident than 91% of U.S. towns, an A Safety Grade and #8 of 90 in Connecticut. Its police reported 0.2 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 1.5 in the rest of Connecticut and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Bethel?
0.2 violent and 4.6 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Connecticut reports 1.5 and 15.1; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is crime going up or down in Bethel?
Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings.
Is Bethel safer than Danbury?
Danbury reports more crime per resident than Bethel: Danbury grades B− for safety and Bethel A. Danbury’s police reported 2.1 violent and 11.4 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Bethel?
Bethel’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Bethel”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Bethel.
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.