Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0In Highland Heights, the kinds of crime the grade counts fell 49% per resident from 2023 to 2025
Among its 3 neighbors with figures, only one records less crime per resident. On top of that, each year brought 0.7 violent crime and 9.0 incidents of property crime for every 1,000 residents (3.2 and 21.8 in the rest of Kentucky). Overall, Highland Heights grades B+ for safety (#39 of 115 graded towns in Kentucky): less crime per resident than 69% of U.S. towns, on crimes its police reported in 2023–2025.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of KY” is every other Kentucky 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 Highland Heights
1 of the 3 graded towns next door reports less crime
Of the 3 Kentucky towns on Highland Heights’ borders, 3 have a Safety Grade: Fort Thomas (A), Wilder (B+), Cold Spring (B−). Neighbors ↓
A college town
Highland Heights is home to Northern Kentucky University, with 6,772 students taking classes on campus (federal college data), and 27% 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
Highland Heights has 3,947 jobs based in town for 6,341 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 Highland Heights’ 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 | Highland Heights property | Rest of Kentucky property | Highland Heights violent | Rest of Kentucky violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 6.0 | 19.9 | 0.6 | 1.8 |
| 2023 | 11.4 | 24.2 | 0.8 | 3.4 |
| 2024 | 9.7 | 21.3 | 0.8 | 3.2 |
| 2025 | 5.8 | 19.9 | 0.5 | 3.1 |
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 Kentucky.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Highland Heights | Rest of Kentucky | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 0.6 | 1.8 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 0.8 | 3.4 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.8 | 3.2 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 0.5 | 3.1 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Highland Heights’ police reported 13 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 0.7 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.2 in the rest of Kentucky and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Highland Heights 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 1 violent crime, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
39 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.
3 violent and 36 property, as reported to the FBI by Highland Heights’ police.
Three people died in crashes on Highland Heights’s roads in 2019–2023
Highland Heights had 3 fatal crashes in five years, in which three people died; 1 was a pedestrian. Most of these deaths (2 of 3) were on an Interstate passing through, so they say more about through-traffic than about the town’s own streets.
That is about what is typical for Kentucky towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (8.1 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Highland Heights’s size would see about 3 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Highland Heights’s own rate (9.3) 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.
Highland Heights and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Highland Heights | B+ | 0.7 | 9.0 |
| Fort Thomas | A | 0.5 | 4.9 |
| Cold Spring | B− | 0.8 | 16.9 |
| Wilder | B+ | 1.2 | 7.1 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Kentucky towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Highland Heights | B+ | 0.7 | 9.0 |
| Wilmore | A | 0.2 | 5.5 |
| Fort Wright | A− | 0.7 | 4.9 |
| Lebanon | B | 1.4 | 10.3 |
| Cynthiana | B− | 1.4 | 13.4 |
| Princeton | C+ | 0.9 | 17.7 |
The five graded Kentucky towns closest to Highland Heights’ population (6,341), 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 Highland Heights. 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 Highland Heights’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (6,210 in 2025); our figure for Highland Heights is 6,341 (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 Highland Heights
Is Highland Heights, KY safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Highland Heights reports less crime per resident than 69% of U.S. towns, a B+ Safety Grade and #39 of 115 in Kentucky. Its police reported 0.7 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.2 in the rest of Kentucky and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Highland Heights?
0.7 violent and 9.0 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Kentucky reports 3.2 and 21.8; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is Highland Heights safer than Fort Thomas?
Fort Thomas reports less crime per resident than Highland Heights: Fort Thomas grades A for safety and Highland Heights B+. Fort Thomas’s police reported 0.5 violent and 4.9 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Highland Heights?
Highland Heights’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Highland Heights”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Neighbors looking out for each other in Highland Heights.
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.