Photo: Billwhittaker · CC BY-SA 3.0Reported crime per resident in Denison fell 52% from 2023 to 2025
Overall, Denison grades B+ for safety (#34 of 105 graded towns in Iowa): less crime per resident than 66% of U.S. towns, on crimes its police reported to the FBI in 2023–2025.
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 Denison
A job center
Denison has 4,976 jobs based in town for 8,214 residents (Census LEHD), so some reports involve people who work or shop there rather than residents. How to read it ↓
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 Denison’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.
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, 2022–2025, against the rest of Iowa.
Show as a table
| Year | Denison property | Rest of Iowa property | Denison violent | Rest of Iowa violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 8.3 | 19.2 | 3.4 | 3.7 |
| 2023 | 8.9 | 20.0 | 1.7 | 3.6 |
| 2024 | 8.2 | 17.9 | 1.2 | 3.2 |
| 2025 | 3.7 | 15.9 | 1.3 | 2.9 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Violent crime, by year and by type
Denison’s police reported 35 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.4 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.2 in the rest of Iowa and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Denison | Rest of Iowa | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 3.4 | 3.7 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 1.7 | 3.6 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 1.2 | 3.2 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.3 | 2.9 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
For every 1,000 residents, about 4 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.
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.
42 crimes reported in 2025
11 violent and 31 property, as reported to the FBI by Denison’s police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
Four people died in crashes on Denison’s roads in 2019–2023
Denison had 4 fatal crashes in five years, in which four people died.
That is more than 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 Denison’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Denison’s own rate (9.7) 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.
Denison and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Denison | B+ | 1.4 | 6.9 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Iowa towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Denison | B+ | 1.4 | 6.9 |
| Sioux Center | A+ | 0.2 | 2.9 |
| Mount Pleasant | B | 1.3 | 9.4 |
| Webster City | B− | 1.9 | 11.9 |
| Perry | C+ | 3.2 | 8.7 |
| Clear Lake | C | 2.5 | 16.6 |
The five graded Iowa towns closest to Denison’s population (8,214), by grade.
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 Denison. 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 Denison’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (8,287 in 2025); our figure for Denison is 8,214 (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 Denison
Is Denison, IA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Denison reports less crime per resident than 66% of U.S. towns, a B+ Safety Grade and #34 of 105 in Iowa. Its police reported 1.4 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 Denison?
1.4 violent and 6.9 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 Denison?
Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings.
Who polices Denison?
Denison’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Denison”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Denison.
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
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.