Photo: Paltron · CC BY-SA 4.0In Fort Scott, the kinds of crime the grade counts fell 49% per resident from 2023 to 2025
Police counts work out at 3.3 violent crimes and 19.1 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents annually; in the rest of Kansas they are 4.8 and 22.4. Fort Scott’s overall Safety Grade is C− (#51 of 80 graded towns in Kansas): more crime per resident than 76% 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 KS” is every other Kansas 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 Fort Scott
Among Kansas towns, closer to the middle
Kansas’ cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Fort Scott’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 36% of the 80 Kansas towns we grade, against 24% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
A college town
Fort Scott is home to Fort Scott Community College, with 1,349 students taking classes on campus (federal college data), and 5% of residents are enrolled in college (Census). Students who live in town count as residents, so they are part of the per-resident rate. How to read it ↓
A job center
Fort Scott has 4,645 jobs based in town for 7,500 residents (Census LEHD), so some reports involve people who work or shop there rather than residents. How to read it ↓
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 Fort Scott’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 higher than in most U.S. towns; violent crime is the closer of the two to typical. Its violent rate (3.3) 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.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Fort Scott property | Rest of Kansas property | Fort Scott violent | Rest of Kansas violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 27.3 | 24.3 | 3.7 | 5.0 |
| 2023 | 28.4 | 24.2 | 3.0 | 4.8 |
| 2024 | 16.9 | 20.2 | 2.9 | 4.1 |
| 2025 | 12.0 | 22.9 | 4.1 | 5.5 |
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 Kansas.
Crime in Fort Scott 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 4 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 | Fort Scott | Rest of Kansas | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 3.7 | 5.0 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 3.0 | 4.8 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 2.9 | 4.1 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 4.1 | 5.5 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Fort Scott’s police reported 76 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 3.3 per 1,000 residents a year, against 4.8 in the rest of Kansas and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
122 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.
31 violent and 91 property, as reported to the FBI by Fort Scott’s police.
Three people died in crashes on Fort Scott’s roads in 2019–2023
Fort Scott had 3 fatal crashes in five years, in which three people died.
That is about what is typical for Kansas towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (5.0 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Fort Scott’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Fort Scott’s own rate (7.9) 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.
Fort Scott and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fort Scott | C− | 3.3 | 19.1 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Kansas towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fort Scott | C− | 3.3 | 19.1 |
| Mulvane | B+ | 0.6 | 10.3 |
| Basehor | B+ | 1.7 | 6.0 |
| Maize | C+ | 2.2 | 15.4 |
| Bonner Springs | C− | 3.9 | 18.6 |
| Wellington | D | 4.0 | 28.4 |
The five graded Kansas towns closest to Fort Scott’s population (7,500), 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 Fort Scott. 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 Fort Scott’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (7,570 in 2025); our figure for Fort Scott is 7,500 (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 Fort Scott
Is Fort Scott, KS safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Fort Scott reports more crime per resident than 76% of U.S. towns, a C− Safety Grade and #51 of 80 in Kansas. Its police reported 3.3 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 4.8 in the rest of Kansas and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Fort Scott?
3.3 violent and 19.1 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Kansas reports 4.8 and 22.4; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Fort Scott?
Fort Scott’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Fort Scott”. 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 Fort Scott.
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.