Photo: PopePompus · CC BY-SA 4.0Recorded crime per resident is lower in Polk City than in 91% of U.S. towns
Violent crime here is lower than in 90% of U.S. towns; property crime, lower than in 86%. Scored on crimes Polk City’s police reported across 2023 to 2025, the town lands on A for safety: #6 of 105 graded towns in Iowa. Police counts work out at 0.4 violent crime and 3.9 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents annually; in the rest of Iowa they are 3.2 and 17.9.
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’s behind Polk City’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; violent crime is the stronger of the two.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Polk City | Rest of Iowa | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 0.7 | 3.7 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 0.6 | 3.6 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.3 | 3.2 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 0.2 | 3.0 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Polk City’s police reported 7 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 0.4 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.2 in the rest of Iowa and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Polk City 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 fewer than 1 violent crime, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | Polk City property | Rest of Iowa property | Polk City violent | Rest of Iowa violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2.9 | 19.2 | 0.7 | 3.7 |
| 2023 | 3.7 | 20.1 | 0.6 | 3.6 |
| 2024 | 2.9 | 17.9 | 0.3 | 3.2 |
| 2025 | 5.1 | 15.9 | 0.2 | 3.0 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2022–2025, against the rest of Iowa.
35 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.
1 violent and 34 property, as reported to the FBI by Polk City’s police.
No one died in a crash on Polk City’s roads in 2019–2023
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 Polk City’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Polk City’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.
Polk City and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polk City | A | 0.4 | 3.9 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Iowa towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polk City | A | 0.4 | 3.9 |
| Eldridge | A | 0.6 | 3.9 |
| Adel | B+ | 0.9 | 8.2 |
| Independence | B | 1.5 | 7.5 |
| Charles City | C+ | 3.2 | 8.4 |
| Atlantic | C− | 3.2 | 19.5 |
The five graded Iowa towns closest to Polk City’s population (6,630), 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 Polk 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 Polk City’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (6,657 in 2025); our figure for Polk City is 6,630 (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 Polk City
Is Polk City, IA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Polk City reports less crime per resident than 91% of U.S. towns, an A Safety Grade and #6 of 105 in Iowa. Its police reported 0.4 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 Polk City?
0.4 violent and 3.9 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.
Who polices Polk City?
Polk City’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Polk City”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
Neighbors looking out for each other in Polk 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.