Photo: IvoShandor · CC BY-SA 3.0Pontiac records more violent crime per head than 75% of U.S. towns
Behind the grade sit 3.2 violent crimes and 11.0 incidents of property crime per 1,000 people a year, where the comparison is 3.1 and 18.8 in the rest of Illinois. Across all the graded crimes, Pontiac lands on C+ (#237 of 339 graded towns in Illinois): more crime per resident than 62% of U.S. towns, on crimes its police reported from 2023 to 2025.
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’s behind Pontiac’s grade
Property crimes plus four times violent crimes reported to the FBI per resident, 2023–2025, on a national curve. Property crime holds Pontiac’s grade up; violent crime pulls it down. Its violent rate (3.2) is below the FBI’s national estimate (3.6) but higher than in most individual towns: the national figure is weighted by people, and the grade counts towns.
Crime in Pontiac 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 about 3 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Pontiac | Rest of Illinois | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2.7 | 3.7 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 4.1 | 3.4 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 2.4 | 3.2 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 3.1 | 2.7 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Pontiac’s police reported 105 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 3.2 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.1 in the rest of Illinois and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | Pontiac property | Rest of Illinois property | Pontiac violent | Rest of Illinois violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 8.3 | 20.5 | 2.7 | 3.7 |
| 2023 | 10.4 | 19.5 | 4.1 | 3.4 |
| 2024 | 13.6 | 19.8 | 2.4 | 3.2 |
| 2025 | 8.9 | 17.1 | 3.1 | 2.7 |
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 Illinois.
132 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.
34 violent and 98 property, as reported to the FBI by Pontiac’s police.
No one died in a crash on Pontiac’s roads in 2019–2023
That is fewer than is typical for Illinois towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (6.8 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Pontiac’s size would see about 4 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Pontiac’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.
Pontiac and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pontiac | C+ | 3.2 | 11.0 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Illinois towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pontiac | C+ | 3.2 | 11.0 |
| Campton Hills | A+ | 0.0 | 0.4 |
| Manhattan | A+ | 0.4 | 2.1 |
| Worth | B− | 2.1 | 10.1 |
| Fox Lake | C+ | 2.8 | 13.5 |
| Summit | C | 3.2 | 13.6 |
The five graded Illinois towns closest to Pontiac’s population (10,806), 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 Pontiac. 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 Pontiac’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (11,016 in 2025); our figure for Pontiac is 10,806 (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 Pontiac
Is Pontiac, IL safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Pontiac reports more crime per resident than 62% of U.S. towns, a C+ Safety Grade and #237 of 339 in Illinois. Its police reported 3.2 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 Pontiac?
3.2 violent and 11.0 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Illinois reports 3.1 and 18.8; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Pontiac?
Pontiac’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Pontiac”. 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 Pontiac.
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.