Photo: Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0Crime per resident in Gonzales runs higher than in 94% of U.S. towns
The Safety Grade comes out at D, drawn from crimes Gonzales’ police reported through 2023 to 2025: #28 of 46 graded towns in Louisiana. Still, the rate the grade counts dropped 35% from 2023 to 2025. Each year brought 5.2 violent crimes and 40.3 incidents of property crime for every 1,000 residents (8.9 and 36.7 in the rest of Louisiana). Violent crime here is higher than in 89% of U.S. towns; property crime, higher than in 96%.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of LA” is every other Louisiana 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 Gonzales
Among Louisiana towns, closer to the middle
Louisiana’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Gonzales’ place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 39% of the 46 Louisiana towns we grade, against 6% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
A college town
Gonzales is home to River Parishes Community College, with 1,755 students taking classes on campus (federal college data), and 6% 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
Gonzales has 11,068 jobs based in town for 13,930 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 Gonzales’ 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.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Gonzales property | Rest of Louisiana property | Gonzales violent | Rest of Louisiana violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 68.4 | 42.5 | 4.9 | 10.1 |
| 2023 | 50.4 | 43.1 | 6.8 | 9.4 |
| 2024 | 39.3 | 34.4 | 3.6 | 8.9 |
| 2025 | 31.8 | 29.6 | 5.2 | 8.2 |
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 Louisiana.
Crime in Gonzales 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 5 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 | Gonzales | Rest of Louisiana | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 4.9 | 10.1 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 6.8 | 9.4 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 3.6 | 8.9 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 5.2 | 8.2 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Gonzales’ police reported 217 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 5.2 per 1,000 residents a year, against 8.9 in the rest of Louisiana and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
528 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.
74 violent and 454 property, as reported to the FBI by Gonzales’ police.
Nine people died in crashes on Gonzales’s roads in 2019–2023
Gonzales had 9 fatal crashes in five years, in which nine people died; 3 were pedestrians and 2 were cyclists.
That is about what is typical for Louisiana towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (10.9 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Gonzales’s size would see about 7 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Gonzales’s own rate (13.7) 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.
Gonzales and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gonzales | D | 5.2 | 40.3 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Louisiana towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gonzales | D | 5.2 | 40.3 |
| Mandeville | B− | 1.3 | 13.3 |
| Broussard | C | 1.9 | 19.7 |
| Thibodaux | C− | 3.0 | 26.1 |
| Opelousas | D− | 14.8 | 51.3 |
| West Monroe | D− | 11.9 | 57.1 |
The five graded Louisiana towns closest to Gonzales’ population (13,930), 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 Gonzales. 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 Gonzales’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (14,258 in 2025); our figure for Gonzales is 13,930 (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 Gonzales
Is Gonzales, LA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Gonzales reports more crime per resident than 94% of U.S. towns, a D Safety Grade and #28 of 46 in Louisiana. Its police reported 5.2 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 8.9 in the rest of Louisiana and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Gonzales?
5.2 violent and 40.3 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Louisiana reports 8.9 and 36.7; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Gonzales?
Gonzales’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Gonzales”. 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 Gonzales.
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.