Photo: Juliejules · CC BY 3.0Old Saybrook reports less violent crime than most U.S. towns, but more property crime
Overall, Old Saybrook grades B for safety (#52 of 90 graded towns in Connecticut): close to the middle of U.S. towns, on crimes its police reported to the FBI in 2023–2025.
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 Old Saybrook
Among Connecticut towns, closer to the middle
Connecticut’s cities and towns report less crime than most states’, so Old Saybrook’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 42% of the 90 Connecticut towns we grade, against 55% 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 Old Saybrook’s grade
Property crimes plus four times violent crimes reported to the FBI per resident, 2023–2025, on a national curve. Violent crime holds Old Saybrook’s grade up; property crime pulls it down. Its property rate (14.5) is below the FBI’s national estimate (17.6) but higher than in most individual towns: the national figure is weighted by people, and the grade counts towns.
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 | Old Saybrook property | Rest of Connecticut property | Old Saybrook violent | Rest of Connecticut violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 15.5 | 16.8 | 1.0 | 1.7 |
| 2023 | 16.4 | 17.1 | 0.6 | 1.7 |
| 2024 | 16.2 | 15.5 | 0.8 | 1.5 |
| 2025 | 11.1 | 12.6 | 0.2 | 1.2 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Violent crime, by year and by type
Old Saybrook’s police reported 16 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 0.5 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 | Old Saybrook | Rest of Connecticut | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.0 | 1.7 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 0.6 | 1.7 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.8 | 1.5 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
For every 1,000 residents, about 11 property crimes reported
And fewer than 1 violent crime, 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.
121 crimes reported in 2025
2 violent and 119 property, as reported to the FBI by Old Saybrook’s police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
One person died in crashes on Old Saybrook’s roads in 2019–2023
Old Saybrook had 1 fatal crash in five years, in which one person died. Most of these deaths (1 of 1) were on an Interstate passing through, so they say more about through-traffic than about the town’s own streets.
That is about what 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 Old Saybrook’s size would see about 4 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Old Saybrook’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.
Old Saybrook and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old Saybrook | B | 0.5 | 14.5 |
| Old Lyme | — | — | — |
| Westbrook | — | — | — |
| Essex | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Old Lyme, Westbrook and Essex have no FBI figures of their own for 2023–2025.
Connecticut towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old Saybrook | B | 0.5 | 14.5 |
| Weston | A+ | 0.0 | 2.0 |
| Canton | A− | 0.2 | 6.1 |
| Winchester | B+ | 0.9 | 8.0 |
| Groton | B+ | 1.6 | 6.0 |
| East Windsor | C+ | 1.0 | 20.9 |
The five graded Connecticut towns closest to Old Saybrook’s population (10,680), 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 Old Saybrook. 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 Old Saybrook’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (10,745 in 2025); our figure for Old Saybrook is 10,680 (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 Old Saybrook
Is Old Saybrook, CT safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Old Saybrook reports less crime per resident than 55% of U.S. towns, a B Safety Grade and #52 of 90 in Connecticut. Its police reported 0.5 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 Old Saybrook?
0.5 violent and 14.5 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Connecticut reports 1.5 and 15.0; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is crime going up or down in Old Saybrook?
Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings.
Who polices Old Saybrook?
Old Saybrook’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Old Saybrook”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Old Saybrook.
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.