Photo: Pdubs.94 · CC BY 4.0Rock Falls reports more crime per resident than 89% of U.S. towns
On crimes reported to the FBI by Rock Falls’ police in 2023–2025, it grades D for safety: #315 of 339 graded towns in Illinois.
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 Rock Falls
1 of the 1 graded towns next door reports less crime
Of the 2 Illinois towns on Rock Falls’ borders, 1 have a Safety Grade: Sterling (C+). Coloma Township has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025. Neighbors ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Rock Falls’ 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 higher than in most U.S. towns; property crime is the closer of the two to typical.
For every 1,000 residents, about 25 property crimes reported
And about 4 violent crimes, 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.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Rock Falls’ police reported 132 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 5.1 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.1 in the rest of Illinois and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Rock Falls | Rest of Illinois | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 5.1 | 3.7 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 5.0 | 3.4 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 6.0 | 3.2 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 4.4 | 2.7 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
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 Illinois.
Show as a table
| Year | Rock Falls property | Rest of Illinois property | Rock Falls violent | Rest of Illinois violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 27.3 | 20.5 | 5.1 | 3.7 |
| 2023 | 23.3 | 19.5 | 5.0 | 3.4 |
| 2024 | 29.7 | 19.8 | 6.0 | 3.2 |
| 2025 | 25.1 | 17.1 | 4.4 | 2.7 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
253 crimes reported in 2025
38 violent and 215 property, as reported to the FBI by Rock Falls’ police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
Two people died in crashes on Rock Falls’s roads in 2019–2023
Rock Falls had 2 fatal crashes in five years, in which two people died.
That is about what 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 Rock Falls’s size would see about 3 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Rock Falls’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.
Rock Falls and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rock Falls | D | 5.1 | 26.0 |
| Sterling | C+ | 2.7 | 12.8 |
| Coloma Township | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Coloma Township has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025.
Illinois towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rock Falls | D | 5.1 | 26.0 |
| Maryville | A− | 1.0 | 3.8 |
| West Dundee | B | 1.2 | 9.1 |
| Jerseyville | C+ | 1.3 | 15.9 |
| Monmouth | C+ | 2.4 | 12.0 |
| Glenwood | C | 2.7 | 16.1 |
The five graded Illinois towns closest to Rock Falls’ population (8,521), by grade.
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 Rock Falls. 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 Rock Falls’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (8,575 in 2025); our figure for Rock Falls is 8,521 (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 Rock Falls
Is Rock Falls, IL safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Rock Falls reports more crime per resident than 89% of U.S. towns, a D Safety Grade and #315 of 339 in Illinois. Its police reported 5.1 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 Rock Falls?
5.1 violent and 26.0 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.
Is crime going up or down in Rock Falls?
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings.
Is Rock Falls safer than Sterling?
Sterling reports less crime per resident than Rock Falls: Sterling grades C+ for safety and Rock Falls D. Sterling’s police reported 2.7 violent and 12.8 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Rock Falls?
Rock Falls’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Rock Falls”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Rock Falls.
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.