Photo: Jared Winkler · CC BY-SA 4.0Carter Lake reports more crime per resident than 94% of U.S. towns
It has more violent crime than 91% of U.S. towns, and more property crime than 96%. Add to that, on crimes Carter Lake’s police reported from 2023 to 2025, it grades D for safety: #101 of 105 graded towns in Iowa. Out of every 1,000 residents, 5.8 violent crimes and 38.6 incidents of property crime are reported annually, against 3.2 and 17.8 in the rest of Iowa. The graded rate fell 43% from 2023 to 2025.
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 about safety in Carter Lake
1 of the 1 graded towns next door reports less crime
Of the 1 Iowa towns on Carter Lake’s borders, 1 have a Safety Grade: Council Bluffs (D). Neighbors ↓
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 Carter Lake’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 per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Carter Lake property | Rest of Iowa property | Carter Lake violent | Rest of Iowa violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 32.9 | 19.1 | 12.5 | 3.7 |
| 2023 | 44.9 | 20.0 | 6.1 | 3.6 |
| 2024 | 47.5 | 17.8 | 5.6 | 3.1 |
| 2025 | 23.5 | 15.8 | 5.6 | 2.9 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
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 Iowa.
Crime in Carter Lake 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 6 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Carter Lake | Rest of Iowa | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 12.5 | 3.7 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 6.1 | 3.6 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 5.6 | 3.1 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 5.6 | 2.9 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Carter Lake’s police reported 65 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 5.8 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.2 in the rest of Iowa and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
109 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. 2025 figures come from FBI Crime Data Explorer, which publishes violent crime, homicides, robberies and property crime only.
21 violent and 88 property, as reported to the FBI by Carter Lake’s police.
No one died in a crash on Carter Lake’s roads in 2019–2023
That is about what is typical for Iowa towns of 2,500–5,000 people: at their median rate (0.0 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Carter Lake’s size would see about 0 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Carter Lake’s own rate (0.0) 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.
Carter Lake and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carter Lake | D | 5.8 | 38.6 |
| Council Bluffs | D | 4.6 | 25.8 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Iowa towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carter Lake | D | 5.8 | 38.6 |
| Waukon | A | 0.4 | 3.5 |
| Osage | A− | 1.3 | 4.6 |
| Emmetsburg | B+ | 1.6 | 4.6 |
| West Liberty | B | 2.7 | 2.4 |
| Albia | C+ | 4.4 | 5.6 |
The five graded Iowa towns closest to Carter Lake’s population (3,670), 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 Carter Lake. 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 Carter Lake’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (3,743 in 2025); our figure for Carter Lake is 3,670 (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 Carter Lake
Is Carter Lake, IA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Carter Lake reports more crime per resident than 94% of U.S. towns, a D Safety Grade and #101 of 105 in Iowa. Its police reported 5.8 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 Carter Lake?
5.8 violent and 38.6 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Iowa reports 3.2 and 17.8; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is Carter Lake safer than Council Bluffs?
Council Bluffs reports less crime per resident than Carter Lake: Council Bluffs grades D for safety and Carter Lake D. Council Bluffs’s police reported 4.6 violent and 25.8 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Carter Lake?
Carter Lake’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Carter Lake Police Department”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
Neighbors looking out for each other in Carter Lake.
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.