Photo: YourJudge · CC BY-SA 4.0Less violent crime is recorded per resident in Buffalo Grove than in 92% of U.S. towns
The graded rate fell 39% from 2023 to 2025. Buffalo Grove’s overall Safety Grade is A− (#58 of 339 graded towns in Illinois): less crime per resident than 84% of U.S. towns, on crimes its police reported from 2023 to 2025. Police counts work out at 0.3 violent crime and 6.1 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents annually; in the rest of Illinois they are 3.1 and 18.9. Add to that, among its 5 neighbors with figures, only one records less crime per resident.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of IL” is every other Illinois 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 Buffalo Grove
1 of the 5 graded towns next door reports less crime
Of the 6 Illinois towns on Buffalo Grove’s borders, 5 have a Safety Grade: Riverwoods (A), Lincolnshire (B+), Arlington Heights (B+), Wheeling (B+), Vernon Hills (B). Long Grove has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025. 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 Buffalo Grove’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.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Buffalo Grove property | Rest of Illinois property | Buffalo Grove violent | Rest of Illinois violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 6.1 | 20.6 | 0.4 | 3.8 |
| 2023 | 7.0 | 19.6 | 0.4 | 3.4 |
| 2024 | 7.2 | 19.9 | 0.2 | 3.2 |
| 2025 | 4.2 | 17.1 | 0.2 | 2.7 |
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 Illinois.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Buffalo Grove | Rest of Illinois | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 0.4 | 3.8 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 0.4 | 3.4 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.2 | 3.2 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 0.2 | 2.7 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Buffalo Grove’s police reported 35 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 0.3 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.1 in the rest of Illinois and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Buffalo Grove 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.
193 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.
10 violent and 183 property, as reported to the FBI by Buffalo Grove’s police.
Five people died in crashes on Buffalo Grove’s roads in 2019–2023
Buffalo Grove had 5 fatal crashes in five years, in which five people died; 2 were pedestrians.
That is fewer than is typical for Illinois towns of 25,000–100,000 people: at their median rate (5.1 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Buffalo Grove’s size would see about 11 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Buffalo Grove’s own rate (2.3) 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.
Buffalo Grove and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buffalo Grove | A− | 0.3 | 6.1 |
| Wheeling | B+ | 0.9 | 8.9 |
| Long Grove | — | — | — |
| Lincolnshire | B+ | 0.5 | 8.3 |
| Arlington Heights | B+ | 0.6 | 8.5 |
| Vernon Hills | B | 0.8 | 13.1 |
| Riverwoods | A | 0.3 | 4.8 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Long Grove has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025.
Illinois towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buffalo Grove | A− | 0.3 | 6.1 |
| Bartlett | A | 0.4 | 3.4 |
| Crystal Lake | B | 1.0 | 10.8 |
| Romeoville | B | 1.4 | 9.5 |
| Lombard | B− | 1.1 | 15.7 |
| Moline | D | 4.1 | 31.3 |
The five graded Illinois towns closest to Buffalo Grove’s population (42,812), 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 Buffalo Grove. 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 Buffalo Grove’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (43,067 in 2025); our figure for Buffalo Grove is 42,812 (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 Buffalo Grove
Is Buffalo Grove, IL safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Buffalo Grove reports less crime per resident than 84% of U.S. towns, an A− Safety Grade and #58 of 339 in Illinois. Its police reported 0.3 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.1 in the rest of Illinois and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Buffalo Grove?
0.3 violent and 6.1 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Illinois reports 3.1 and 18.9; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
How many homicides were there in Buffalo Grove in 2025?
Buffalo Grove’s police reported 0 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 0.0 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Is Buffalo Grove safer than Wheeling?
Wheeling reports more crime per resident than Buffalo Grove: Wheeling grades B+ for safety and Buffalo Grove A−. Wheeling’s police reported 0.9 violent and 8.9 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Buffalo Grove?
Buffalo Grove’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Buffalo Grove”. 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 Buffalo Grove.
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.