Charles J. Thompson House · Photo: Chuckmor · CC BY-SA 3.0Forest City has no Safety Grade
Within a 25-mile drive lie 2 towns that have a grade. Forest City’s police reported to the FBI for 2025 but not 2023 or 2024, so there is no Safety Grade: the grade needs all three years, 2023–2025. Clear Lake, 16 miles away, is the nearest town with a Safety Grade (C).
For every 1,000 residents, about 4 property crimes reported
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.
The years Forest City’s police reported
Show as a table
| Year | Forest City | Rest of Iowa | Forest City | Rest of Iowa |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | not reported | 19.2 | not reported | 3.7 |
| 2023 | not reported | 20.0 | not reported | 3.6 |
| 2024 | not reported | 17.9 | not reported | 3.1 |
| 2025 | 3.6 | 15.9 | 1.0 | 2.9 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents, against the rest of Iowa. A year the department didn’t report in full is a gap, not a zero.
19 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 15 property, as reported to the FBI by Forest City’s police.
The nearest Iowa towns with a Safety Grade
| Town | Grade | Distance | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clear Lake | C | 16 mi | 2.5 | 16.6 |
| Mason City | C− | 23 mi | 2.6 | 26.2 |
| Algona | B+ | 33 mi | 2.3 | 1.6 |
| Clarion | B+ | 37 mi | 2.1 | 4.0 |
| Osage | A− | 42 mi | 1.3 | 4.6 |
| Hampton | A− | 42 mi | 1.1 | 3.7 |
Straight-line distance from the center of Forest City. Nearby towns can differ a lot from Forest City.
Each town’s own police figures, per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
One person died in crashes on Forest City’s roads in 2019–2023
Forest City had 1 fatal crash in five years, in which one person died.
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 Forest City’s size would see about 0 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Forest City’s own rate (4.7) 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.
Forest City and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
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 Forest City. 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 Forest City’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (4,182 in 2025); our figure for Forest City is 4,143 (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 Forest City
Is Forest City, IA safe?
There is no Safety Grade for Forest City. The nearest Iowa towns with a grade are Clear Lake (C, 16 mi), Mason City (C−, 23 mi), Algona (B+, 33 mi).
Who polices Forest City?
Forest City’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Forest City”. 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 Forest City.
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.