Photo: Andrew Bossi · CC BY-SA 2.5Reported crime per resident in Bowie rose 35% from 2023 to 2025
Overall, Bowie grades C for safety (#23 of 52 graded towns in Maryland): more crime per resident than 66% of U.S. towns, on crimes its police reported to the FBI in 2023–2025.
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 Bowie
Among Maryland towns, closer to the middle
Maryland’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Bowie’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 56% of the 52 Maryland towns we grade, against 34% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
Reported crime is rising
Crime reported per resident rose 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 Bowie’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 (1.8) 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.
Reported crime is rising
Reported crime per resident rose from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2022–2025, against the rest of Maryland.
Show as a table
| Year | Bowie property | Rest of Maryland property | Bowie violent | Rest of Maryland violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 12.0 | 28.3 | 1.1 | 11.4 |
| 2023 | 14.3 | 31.4 | 1.6 | 9.3 |
| 2024 | 22.8 | 30.6 | 1.9 | 9.2 |
| 2025 | 19.4 | 27.3 | 2.0 | 7.5 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Violent crime, by year and by type
Bowie’s police reported 317 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.8 per 1,000 residents a year, against 8.7 in the rest of Maryland and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Bowie | Rest of Maryland | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.1 | 11.4 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 1.6 | 9.3 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 1.9 | 9.2 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 2.0 | 7.5 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
For every 1,000 residents, about 19 property crimes reported
And about 2 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
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.
1,255 crimes reported in 2025
119 violent and 1,136 property, as reported to the FBI by Bowie’s police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
Eight people died in crashes on Bowie’s roads in 2019–2023
Bowie had 8 fatal crashes in five years, in which eight people died; 3 were pedestrians and 1 was a cyclist.
That is fewer than is typical for Maryland towns of 25,000–100,000 people: at their median rate (5.1 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Bowie’s size would see about 15 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Bowie’s own rate (2.8) 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.
Bowie and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bowie | C | 1.8 | 18.9 |
| Fairwood | — | — | — |
| Glenn Dale | — | — | — |
| Brock Hall | — | — | — |
| Woodmore | — | — | — |
| Kettering | — | — | — |
| Queen Anne | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Fairwood, Glenn Dale, Brock Hall, Woodmore, Kettering and Queen Anne are unincorporated communities (census-designated places) with no police department of their own.
Maryland towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bowie | C | 1.8 | 18.9 |
| Rockville | B− | 1.3 | 13.6 |
| Gaithersburg | C+ | 2.3 | 12.8 |
| Frederick | C− | 3.9 | 16.9 |
| Hagerstown | D | 6.7 | 23.5 |
| Annapolis | D | 7.3 | 19.5 |
The five graded Maryland towns closest to Bowie’s population (58,383), by grade.
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 Bowie. A citywide rate doesn’t show where incidents happen, and that can differ a lot from one part of the city to another.
- Visitors count too. Incidents involving people who work, shop or visit are counted against Bowie’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (58,471 in 2025); our figure for Bowie is 58,383 (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 Bowie
Is Bowie, MD safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Bowie reports more crime per resident than 66% of U.S. towns, a C Safety Grade and #23 of 52 in Maryland. Its police reported 1.8 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 8.7 in the rest of Maryland and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Bowie?
1.8 violent and 18.9 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Maryland reports 8.7 and 29.7; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is crime going up or down in Bowie?
Reported crime per resident rose from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings.
How many homicides were there in Bowie in 2025?
Bowie’s police reported 2 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 3.4 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Who polices Bowie?
Bowie’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Bowie”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Bowie.
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
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.