Clay County Courthouse · Photo: Scott Romine · CC BY-SA 4.0Spencer reports less crime per resident than 64% of U.S. towns
On crimes reported to the FBI by Spencer’s police in 2023–2025, it grades B for safety: #38 of 105 graded towns in Iowa.
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 Spencer
A job center
Spencer has 6,775 jobs based in town for 11,218 residents (Census LEHD), so some reports involve people who work or shop there rather than residents. How to read it ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Spencer’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
Spencer’s police reported 28 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 0.8 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 | Spencer | Rest of Iowa | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.2 | 3.7 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 1.0 | 3.6 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.5 | 3.2 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.0 | 3.0 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
For every 1,000 residents, about 9 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.
Reported crime is steady
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.
Show as a table
| Year | Spencer property | Rest of Iowa property | Spencer violent | Rest of Iowa violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 10.0 | 19.2 | 1.2 | 3.7 |
| 2023 | 11.5 | 20.1 | 1.0 | 3.6 |
| 2024 | 9.9 | 17.9 | 0.5 | 3.2 |
| 2025 | 8.7 | 15.9 | 1.0 | 3.0 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
111 crimes reported in 2025
11 violent and 100 property, as reported to the FBI by Spencer’s police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
One person died in crashes on Spencer’s roads in 2019–2023
Spencer had 1 fatal crash in five years, in which one person died.
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 Spencer’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Spencer’s own rate (1.8) 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.
Spencer and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spencer | B | 0.8 | 10.1 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
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 Spencer. 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 Spencer’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (11,447 in 2025); our figure for Spencer is 11,218 (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 Spencer
Is Spencer, IA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Spencer reports less crime per resident than 64% of U.S. towns, a B Safety Grade and #38 of 105 in Iowa. Its police reported 0.8 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 Spencer?
0.8 violent and 10.1 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 Spencer?
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings.
Who polices Spencer?
Spencer’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Spencer”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Spencer.
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.