Photo: Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0Recorded crime per resident is higher in Council Bluffs than in 87% of U.S. towns
Graded on crimes Council Bluffs’ police reported from 2023 to 2025, it scores D for safety: #95 of 105 graded towns in Iowa. Its police logs show 4.6 violent crimes and 25.8 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents a year, while in the rest of Iowa the numbers are 3.2 and 17.6. Per resident, the graded crimes were down 22% 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 Council Bluffs
Council Bluffs reports less crime than every graded town next door
Of the 1 Iowa towns on Council Bluffs’ borders, 1 have a Safety Grade: Carter Lake (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 Council Bluffs’ 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 | Council Bluffs property | Rest of Iowa property | Council Bluffs violent | Rest of Iowa violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 30.0 | 18.7 | 4.2 | 3.7 |
| 2023 | 30.7 | 19.7 | 4.5 | 3.6 |
| 2024 | 24.5 | 17.7 | 4.2 | 3.1 |
| 2025 | 22.1 | 15.6 | 5.3 | 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 Council Bluffs 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 5 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 | Council Bluffs | Rest of Iowa | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 4.2 | 3.7 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 4.5 | 3.6 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 4.2 | 3.1 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 5.3 | 2.9 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Council Bluffs’ police reported 870 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 4.6 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.2 in the rest of Iowa and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
1,715 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.
329 violent and 1,386 property, as reported to the FBI by Council Bluffs’ police.
20 people died in crashes on Council Bluffs’s roads in 2019–2023
Council Bluffs had 20 fatal crashes in five years, in which 20 people died; 5 were pedestrians. Most of these deaths (10 of 20) were on an Interstate passing through, so they say more about through-traffic than about the town’s own streets.
That is 6.4 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for Iowa towns of 25,000–100,000 people (3.8, 16 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.
Council Bluffs and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Council Bluffs | D | 4.6 | 25.8 |
| Carter Lake | D | 5.8 | 38.6 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Iowa towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Council Bluffs | D | 4.6 | 25.8 |
| Ames | B− | 1.4 | 13.8 |
| West Des Moines | C+ | 1.6 | 18.1 |
| Iowa City | C | 3.1 | 17.2 |
| Dubuque | C | 4.1 | 15.3 |
| Waterloo | D | 5.1 | 23.6 |
The five graded Iowa towns closest to Council Bluffs’ population (62,680), 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 Council Bluffs. A citywide rate doesn’t show where incidents happen, and that can differ a lot from one part of the city to another.
- Visitors count too. Incidents involving people who work, shop or visit are counted against Council Bluffs’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (62,635 in 2025); our figure for Council Bluffs is 62,680 (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 Council Bluffs
Is Council Bluffs, IA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Council Bluffs reports more crime per resident than 87% of U.S. towns, a D Safety Grade and #95 of 105 in Iowa. Its police reported 4.6 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 Council Bluffs?
4.6 violent and 25.8 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Iowa reports 3.2 and 17.6; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
How many homicides were there in Council Bluffs in 2025?
Council Bluffs’s police reported 2 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 3.2 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Is Council Bluffs safer than Carter Lake?
Carter Lake reports more crime per resident than Council Bluffs: Carter Lake grades D for safety and Council Bluffs D. Carter Lake’s police reported 5.8 violent and 38.6 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Council Bluffs?
Council Bluffs’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Council Bluffs”. 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 Council Bluffs.
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.