Photo: Yaoiloverr · CC BY-SA 4.0More property crime is recorded per resident in Bel Air than in 80% of U.S. towns
The rate the grade counts held about level from 2023 to 2025. Its Safety Grade, C (#25 of 52 graded towns in Maryland), rests on crimes its police reported from 2023 to 2025: more crime per resident than 71% of U.S. towns. Year on year, 1.9 violent crimes and 21.6 incidents of property crime occur per 1,000 residents, compared with 8.4 and 29.4 in the rest of Maryland.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of MD” is every other Maryland 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 Bel Air
Among Maryland towns, closer to the middle
Maryland’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Bel Air’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 52% of the 52 Maryland towns we grade, against 29% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
A job center
Bel Air has 14,915 jobs based in town for 10,507 residents (Census LEHD), so some reports involve people who work or shop there rather than residents. How to read it ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Bel Air’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 (1.9) 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.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Bel Air | Rest of Maryland | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.8 | 10.9 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 1.9 | 9.0 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 2.4 | 8.9 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.5 | 7.4 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Bel Air’s police reported 60 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.9 per 1,000 residents a year, against 8.4 in the rest of Maryland and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Bel Air 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 2 violent crimes, 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 | Bel Air property | Rest of Maryland property | Bel Air violent | Rest of Maryland violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 25.1 | 27.4 | 1.8 | 10.9 |
| 2023 | 22.4 | 30.8 | 1.9 | 9.0 |
| 2024 | 20.1 | 30.3 | 2.4 | 8.9 |
| 2025 | 22.5 | 27.0 | 1.5 | 7.4 |
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 Maryland.
247 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.
15 violent and 232 property, as reported to the FBI by Bel Air’s police.
Two people died in crashes on Bel Air’s roads in 2019–2023
Bel Air had 2 fatal crashes in five years, in which two people died; 2 were pedestrians.
That is about what is typical for Maryland towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (5.7 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Bel Air’s size would see about 3 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Bel Air’s own rate (3.8) 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.
Bel Air and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bel Air | C | 1.9 | 21.6 |
| Bel Air North | — | — | — |
| Bel Air South | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Bel Air North and Bel Air South are unincorporated communities (census-designated places) with no police department of their own.
Maryland towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bel Air | C | 1.9 | 21.6 |
| Ocean Pines | A+ | 0.2 | 2.5 |
| Brunswick | B+ | 1.7 | 5.3 |
| Mount Airy | C+ | 3.3 | 10.3 |
| La Plata | C+ | 1.9 | 16.6 |
| Bladensburg | D | 7.2 | 36.1 |
The five graded Maryland towns closest to Bel Air’s population (10,507), 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 Bel Air. 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 Bel Air’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (10,321 in 2025); our figure for Bel Air is 10,507 (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 Bel Air
Is Bel Air, MD safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Bel Air reports more crime per resident than 71% of U.S. towns, a C Safety Grade and #25 of 52 in Maryland. Its police reported 1.9 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 8.4 in the rest of Maryland and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Bel Air?
1.9 violent and 21.6 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Maryland reports 8.4 and 29.4; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Bel Air?
Bel Air’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Bel Air”. 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 Bel Air.
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.