Photo: Rochambeau1783 · CC BY 4.0Lake Helen sees less property crime per resident than 89% of U.S. towns
Across all the graded crimes, Lake Helen lands on A− (#14 of 128 graded towns in Florida): less crime per resident than 76% of U.S. towns, on crimes its police reported from 2023 to 2025. Out of every 1,000 residents, 1.6 violent crimes and 3.3 incidents of property crime are reported annually, against 3.4 and 17.2 in the rest of Florida.
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 Lake Helen
Among Florida towns, higher
Florida’s cities and towns report less crime than most states’, so Lake Helen’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 89% of the 128 Florida towns we grade, against 76% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Lake Helen’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; property crime is the stronger of the two.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Lake Helen | Rest of Florida | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2.1 | 4.4 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 1.0 | 3.6 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 2.3 | 3.5 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.3 | 3.0 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Lake Helen’s police reported 14 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.6 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.4 in the rest of Florida and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Lake Helen 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 1 violent crime, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | Lake Helen property | Rest of Florida property | Lake Helen violent | Rest of Florida violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 5.2 | 22.1 | 2.1 | 4.4 |
| 2023 | 3.7 | 19.2 | 1.0 | 3.6 |
| 2024 | 1.7 | 18.4 | 2.3 | 3.5 |
| 2025 | 4.6 | 14.3 | 1.3 | 3.0 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
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 Florida.
18 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.
4 violent and 14 property, as reported to the FBI by Lake Helen’s police.
Two people died in crashes on Lake Helen’s roads in 2019–2023
Lake Helen had 2 fatal crashes in five years, in which two people died. Most of these deaths (1 of 2) 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 Florida towns of 2,500–5,000 people: at their median rate (10.4 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Lake Helen’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Lake Helen’s own rate (13.7) 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.
Lake Helen and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Helen | A− | 1.6 | 3.3 |
| DeLand | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. DeLand has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025.
Florida towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Helen | A− | 1.6 | 3.3 |
| Holmes Beach | B | 1.2 | 10.3 |
| Edgewood | B− | 1.6 | 11.0 |
| Lake Hamilton | C+ | 2.0 | 16.7 |
| Bal Harbour | C− | 1.1 | 29.5 |
| Mangonia Park | D− | 10.7 | 52.8 |
The five graded Florida towns closest to Lake Helen’s population (2,994), 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 Lake Helen. 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 Lake Helen’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (3,026 in 2025); our figure for Lake Helen is 2,994 (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 Lake Helen
Is Lake Helen, FL safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Lake Helen reports less crime per resident than 76% of U.S. towns, an A− Safety Grade and #14 of 128 in Florida. Its police reported 1.6 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.4 in the rest of Florida and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Lake Helen?
1.6 violent and 3.3 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Florida reports 3.4 and 17.2; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Lake Helen?
Lake Helen’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Lake Helen”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Neighbors looking out for each other in Lake Helen.
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.