Photo: Tim Kiser (w:User:Malepheasant) · CC BY-SA 2.5Dover reports more crime per resident than 98% of U.S. towns
On crimes reported to the FBI by Dover’s police in 2023–2025, it grades D− for safety: #19 of 22 graded towns in Delaware.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of DE” is every other Delaware 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 Dover
Among Delaware towns, closer to the middle
Delaware’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Dover’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 14% of the 22 Delaware towns we grade, against 2% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
A college town
Dover is home to Delaware Technical Community College-Terry, with 10,288 students taking classes on campus (federal college data), and 15% 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
Dover has 28,350 jobs based in town for 40,592 residents (Census LEHD), so some reports involve people who work or shop there rather than residents. How to read it ↓
Reported crime is rising
Crime reported per resident rose 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 Dover’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.
Reported crime is rising
Reported crime per resident rose from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2022–2025, against the rest of Delaware.
Show as a table
| Year | Dover property | Rest of Delaware property | Dover violent | Rest of Delaware violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 45.3 | 28.2 | 8.2 | 6.9 |
| 2023 | 44.9 | 27.4 | 7.2 | 6.7 |
| 2024 | 60.7 | 25.7 | 10.1 | 6.3 |
| 2025 | 57.5 | 22.6 | 8.2 | 6.0 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Violent crime, by year and by type
Dover’s police reported 1,015 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 8.6 per 1,000 residents a year, against 6.3 in the rest of Delaware and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Dover | Rest of Delaware | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 8.2 | 6.9 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 7.2 | 6.7 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 10.1 | 6.3 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 8.2 | 6.0 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
For every 1,000 residents, about 58 property crimes reported
And about 8 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.
2,656 crimes reported in 2025
333 violent and 2,323 property, as reported to the FBI by Dover’s police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
24 people died in crashes on Dover’s roads in 2019–2023
Dover had 21 fatal crashes in five years, in which 24 people died; 3 were pedestrians and 1 was a cyclist.
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.
Dover and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dover | D− | 8.6 | 54.5 |
| Kent Acres | — | — | — |
| Rodney Village | — | — | — |
| Dover Base Housing | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Kent Acres, Rodney Village and Dover Base Housing are unincorporated communities (census-designated places) with no police department of their own.
Delaware towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dover | D− | 8.6 | 54.5 |
| Middletown | C+ | 1.7 | 15.9 |
| Newark | C | 2.8 | 18.5 |
| Wilmington | D− | 11.9 | 32.2 |
The five graded Delaware towns closest to Dover’s population (40,592), 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 Dover. 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 Dover’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (40,389 in 2025); our figure for Dover is 40,592 (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 Dover
Is Dover, DE safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Dover reports more crime per resident than 98% of U.S. towns, a D− Safety Grade and #19 of 22 in Delaware. Its police reported 8.6 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 6.3 in the rest of Delaware and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Dover?
8.6 violent and 54.5 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Delaware reports 6.3 and 25.2; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is crime going up or down in Dover?
Reported crime per resident rose from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings.
How many homicides were there in Dover in 2025?
Dover’s police reported 2 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 5.0 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Who polices Dover?
Dover’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Dover”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Dover.
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.