Photo: Connor J Williams · CC BY 2.0Cocoa records more crime per resident than 94% of U.S. towns
The rate the grade counts climbed 24% from 2023 to 2025. Counting crimes Cocoa’s police reported from 2023 to 2025, it grades D for safety: #120 of 128 graded towns in Florida. Violence and property crime split as 8.8 violent crimes and 26.9 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents a year, beside 3.3 and 17.2 in the rest of Florida. Add to that, violent crime here is higher than in 97% of U.S. towns; property crime, higher than in 88%.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of FL” is every other Florida 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 Cocoa
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 Cocoa’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; property crime is the closer of the two to typical.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Cocoa property | Rest of Florida property | Cocoa violent | Rest of Florida violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 48.0 | 22.0 | 10.9 | 4.4 |
| 2023 | 20.8 | 19.2 | 6.3 | 3.6 |
| 2024 | 35.5 | 18.3 | 10.8 | 3.5 |
| 2025 | 24.4 | 14.3 | 9.2 | 3.0 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
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 Florida.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Cocoa | Rest of Florida | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 10.9 | 4.4 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 6.3 | 3.6 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 10.8 | 3.5 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 9.2 | 3.0 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Cocoa’s police reported 529 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 8.8 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.3 in the rest of Florida and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Cocoa 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 9 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
676 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.
185 violent and 491 property, as reported to the FBI by Cocoa’s police.
27 people died in crashes on Cocoa’s roads in 2019–2023
Cocoa had 26 fatal crashes in five years, in which 27 people died; 10 were pedestrians and 2 were cyclists.
That is 27.6 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for Florida towns of 5,000–25,000 people (11.0, 308 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.
Cocoa and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cocoa | D | 8.8 | 26.9 |
| Cocoa West | — | — | — |
| Rockledge | — | — | — |
| Sharpes | — | — | — |
| Merritt Island | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Cocoa West, Sharpes and Merritt Island are unincorporated communities (census-designated places) with no police department of their own. Rockledge has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025.
Florida towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cocoa | D | 8.8 | 26.9 |
| Punta Gorda | A− | 0.5 | 6.2 |
| Maitland | C+ | 1.9 | 13.8 |
| Seminole | C+ | 1.6 | 17.6 |
| Lake Wales | C | 3.2 | 16.8 |
| Stuart | C− | 3.6 | 19.4 |
The five graded Florida towns closest to Cocoa’s population (19,777), 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 Cocoa. 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 Cocoa’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (20,135 in 2025); our figure for Cocoa is 19,777 (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 Cocoa
Is Cocoa, FL safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Cocoa reports more crime per resident than 94% of U.S. towns, a D Safety Grade and #120 of 128 in Florida. Its police reported 8.8 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.3 in the rest of Florida and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Cocoa?
8.8 violent and 26.9 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Florida reports 3.3 and 17.2; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Cocoa?
Cocoa’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Cocoa”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
Neighbors looking out for each other in Cocoa.
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.