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StollBuildingWorksPhoto: Dan Breyfogle · CC BY-SA 3.0
B+
Safety in Boone · FBI data, 2023–2025

Reported crime per resident in Boone fell 34% from 2023 to 2025

Overall, Boone grades B+ for safety (#36 of 105 graded towns in Iowa): less crime per resident than 65% of U.S. towns, on crimes its police reported to the FBI in 2023–2025.

Violent crime
1.6
per 1,000 a year · Well below rest of IA (3.2)
U.S. (FBI national estimate) 3.6
Property crime
6.6
per 1,000 a year · Well below rest of IA (17.9)
U.S. (FBI national estimate) 17.6
Crimes reported
306
60 violent · 246 property
2023–2025
Trend
▼ Falling
2023 to 2025
beyond ordinary swings

Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of IA” is every other Iowa 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 · In brief

What stands out about safety in Boone

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.

Safety Grade

What’s behind Boone’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.

Where Boone sits
B− Violent 1.6B+ Property 6.6
All U.S. towns we grade (7,426)Less crime than 65%
More reported crimeLess reported crime
Iowa towns we grade (105)Less crime than 66% · #36 of 105
Places of 5,000–25,000 people (3,282)Less crime than 64%
A fairly firm grade. Built on 306 reported crimes over three years. Ordinary swings could put Boone anywhere from B to B+.
A note on the data.Property crimes reported to the FBI went from 111 in 2023 to 50 in 2024; 2023 figures come from the FBI's Crime Data Explorer; the FBI's published 2023 table doesn't include this department; 2024 figures come from the FBI's Crime Data Explorer; the FBI's published 2024 table doesn't include this department; the grade uses the figures as published.

How TownRatings grades safety →

Trend

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, 2023–2025, against the rest of Iowa.

Show as a table
YearBoone propertyRest of Iowa propertyBoone violentRest of Iowa violent
20239.020.12.73.6
20244.018.01.33.2
20256.815.90.93.0

Crimes per 1,000 residents

Violent crime

Violent crime, by year and by type

Boone’s police reported 60 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.6 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.2 in the rest of Iowa and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.

1,000 neighbors · one year

For every 1,000 residents, about 7 property crimes reported

And about 1 violent crime, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.

Property crime (6.8)Violent crime (0.9)Everyone else

Violent crime per 1,000 residents, 2025

Boone0.9
Rest of IA3.0
U.S. (FBI)3.3

Property crime per 1,000 residents, 2025

Boone6.8
Rest of IA15.9
U.S. (FBI)15.5

Crimes reported to police in 2025 per resident; one person can be the victim of more than one, and some reports involve visitors.

What gets reported

96 crimes reported in 2025

11 violent and 85 property, as reported to the FBI by Boone’s police.

2025 offenses reported

Larceny / theft70
Burglary8
Vehicle theft7
Aggravated assault11
Robbery0
Rape0
Homicide0
Arson0
11
violent crimes
85
property crimes

Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.

On the roads

Three people died in crashes on Boone’s roads in 2019–2023

Boone had 2 fatal crashes in five years, in which three people died.

That is about what is typical for Iowa towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (3.2 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Boone’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Boone’s own rate (4.8) is context, not a ranking.

3
people died in crashes, 2019–2023
0
pedestrians among them
0
cyclists among them
4.8
per 100,000 a year · Iowa towns of 5,000–25,000: 3.2

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.

Next door

Boone and its neighbors

How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.

Boone
A rangeB rangeC rangeD rangeNot graded
TownGradeViolentProperty
BooneB+1.66.6

Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.

Iowa towns of a similar size

TownGradeViolentProperty
BooneB+1.66.6
PellaB+0.97.5
SpencerB0.810.1
Le MarsB2.07.2
OskaloosaB−2.39.9
Storm LakeC2.715.4

The five graded Iowa towns closest to Boone’s population (12,471), by grade.

How to read these numbers

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 Boone. 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 Boone’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
  • Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (12,464 in 2025); our figure for Boone is 12,471 (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 Boone

Is Boone, IA safe?

On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Boone reports less crime per resident than 65% of U.S. towns, a B+ Safety Grade and #36 of 105 in Iowa. Its police reported 1.6 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.2 in the rest of Iowa and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.

What is the crime rate in Boone?

1.6 violent and 6.6 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Iowa reports 3.2 and 17.9; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.

Is crime going up or down in Boone?

Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings.

Who polices Boone?

Boone’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Boone”. Its figures are the ones on this page.

Heads-up board

Neighbors looking out for each other in Boone.

Town Square →
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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.