Photo: John Phelan · CC BY 3.0Recorded crime per resident is lower in Walpole than in 63% of U.S. towns
Next door, 5 of 7 towns with figures record less crime per resident. Still, the yearly rates were 1.4 violent crimes and 8.2 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents, set against 3.0 and 10.3 in the rest of Massachusetts. A Safety Grade of B follows from crimes Walpole’s police reported over the years 2023 to 2025: #157 of 276 graded towns in Massachusetts.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of MA” is every other Massachusetts 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 Walpole
5 of the 7 graded towns next door report less crime
Of the 7 Massachusetts towns on Walpole’s borders, 7 have a Safety Grade: Sharon (A+), Norfolk (A), Medfield (A), Dover (A−), Norwood (B+), Foxborough (B), Westwood (B). Neighbors ↓
Among Massachusetts towns, closer to the middle
Massachusetts’ cities and towns report less crime than most states’, so Walpole’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 43% of the 276 Massachusetts towns we grade, against 63% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Walpole’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 lower than in most U.S. towns; property crime is the stronger of the two.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Walpole | Rest of Massachusetts | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.5 | 3.2 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 1.4 | 3.1 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 1.3 | 3.0 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.3 | 2.9 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Walpole’s police reported 108 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.4 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.0 in the rest of Massachusetts and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Walpole 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.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | Walpole property | Rest of Massachusetts property | Walpole violent | Rest of Massachusetts violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 9.1 | 10.5 | 1.5 | 3.2 |
| 2023 | 8.6 | 10.9 | 1.4 | 3.1 |
| 2024 | 8.1 | 10.3 | 1.3 | 3.0 |
| 2025 | 7.9 | 9.8 | 1.3 | 2.9 |
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 Massachusetts.
243 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.
35 violent and 208 property, as reported to the FBI by Walpole’s police.
Four people died in crashes on Walpole’s roads in 2019–2023
Walpole had 4 fatal crashes in five years, in which four people died; 2 were pedestrians. Most of these deaths (2 of 4) 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 Massachusetts towns of 25,000–100,000 people: at their median rate (4.0 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Walpole’s size would see about 5 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Walpole’s own rate (3.0) 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.
Walpole and its neighbors
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Massachusetts towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walpole | B | 1.4 | 8.2 |
| Marshfield | A | 1.0 | 1.6 |
| Reading | A | 0.3 | 5.2 |
| Easton | B | 1.6 | 7.6 |
| Dedham | C+ | 2.5 | 13.4 |
| Burlington | C+ | 2.0 | 16.8 |
The five graded Massachusetts towns closest to Walpole’s population (26,237), 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 Walpole. 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 Walpole’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (26,289 in 2025); our figure for Walpole is 26,237 (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 Walpole
Is Walpole, MA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Walpole reports less crime per resident than 63% of U.S. towns, a B Safety Grade and #157 of 276 in Massachusetts. Its police reported 1.4 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.0 in the rest of Massachusetts and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Walpole?
1.4 violent and 8.2 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Massachusetts reports 3.0 and 10.3; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
How many homicides were there in Walpole in 2025?
Walpole’s police reported 0 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 0.0 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Is Walpole safer than Norfolk?
Norfolk reports less crime per resident than Walpole: Norfolk grades A for safety and Walpole B. Norfolk’s police reported 0.3 violent and 2.7 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Walpole?
Walpole’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Walpole”. 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 Walpole.
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.