Photo: Jim Plylar · CC BY-SA 3.0Zachary records more property crime per head than 79% of U.S. towns
For every 1,000 residents, 3.3 violent crimes and 20.7 incidents of property crime were logged a year; in the rest of Louisiana, the figures are 9.0 and 37.0. Overall, it grades C− for safety (#15 of 46 graded towns in Louisiana).
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 Zachary
Among Louisiana towns, closer to the middle
Louisiana’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Zachary’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 67% of the 46 Louisiana towns we grade, against 22% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Zachary’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.
Crime in Zachary 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 | Zachary | Rest of Louisiana | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 3.5 | 10.2 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 3.4 | 9.4 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 3.3 | 9.0 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 3.1 | 8.3 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Zachary’s police reported 200 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 3.3 per 1,000 residents a year, against 9.0 in the rest of Louisiana and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | Zachary property | Rest of Louisiana property | Zachary violent | Rest of Louisiana violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 19.5 | 43.0 | 3.5 | 10.2 |
| 2023 | 22.3 | 43.5 | 3.4 | 9.4 |
| 2024 | 20.2 | 34.8 | 3.3 | 9.0 |
| 2025 | 19.8 | 29.8 | 3.1 | 8.3 |
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 Louisiana.
471 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.
64 violent and 407 property, as reported to the FBI by Zachary’s police.
11 people died in crashes on Zachary’s roads in 2019–2023
Zachary had 11 fatal crashes in five years, in which 11 people died.
That is 11.0 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as the median for Louisiana towns of 5,000–25,000 people (10.9, 80 towns).
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.
Zachary and its neighbors
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Central reported to the FBI for 2025 but not 2023 or 2024.
Louisiana towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zachary | C− | 3.3 | 20.7 |
| Broussard | C | 1.9 | 19.7 |
| Sulphur | D | 3.2 | 29.7 |
| Ruston | D | 4.5 | 34.7 |
| Gretna | D | 4.0 | 34.7 |
| Hammond | D− | 6.8 | 54.3 |
The five graded Louisiana towns closest to Zachary’s population (20,621), 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 Zachary. 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 Zachary’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (20,597 in 2025); our figure for Zachary is 20,621 (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 Zachary
Is Zachary, LA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Zachary reports more crime per resident than 78% of U.S. towns, a C− Safety Grade and #15 of 46 in Louisiana. Its police reported 3.3 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 9.0 in the rest of Louisiana and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Zachary?
3.3 violent and 20.7 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Louisiana reports 9.0 and 37.0; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Zachary?
Zachary’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Zachary”. 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 Zachary.
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.