District Heights reports more crime per resident than 83% of U.S. towns
On crimes reported to the FBI by District Heights’ police in 2023–2025, it grades C− for safety: #33 of 52 graded towns in 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 District Heights
Among Maryland towns, closer to the middle
Maryland’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so District Heights’ place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 37% of the 52 Maryland towns we grade, against 17% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
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 District Heights’ 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; property crime is the closer of the two to typical.
Reported crime is falling
Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2023–2025, against the rest of Maryland.
Show as a table
| Year | District Heights property | Rest of Maryland property | District Heights violent | Rest of Maryland violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 24.3 | 30.7 | 5.4 | 9.0 |
| 2024 | 16.8 | 30.3 | 7.8 | 8.9 |
| 2025 | 13.7 | 27.1 | 2.5 | 7.3 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
For every 1,000 residents, about 14 property crimes reported
And about 3 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.
Violent crime, by year and by type
District Heights’ police reported 91 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 5.2 per 1,000 residents a year, against 8.4 in the rest of Maryland and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | District Heights | Rest of Maryland | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 5.4 | 9.0 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 7.8 | 8.9 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 2.5 | 7.3 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
96 crimes reported in 2025
15 violent and 81 property, as reported to the FBI by District Heights’ police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
One person died in crashes on District Heights’s roads in 2019–2023
District Heights had 1 fatal crash in five years, in which one person died.
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 District Heights’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so District Heights’s own rate (3.4) 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.
District Heights and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| District Heights | C− | 5.2 | 18.2 |
| Walker Mill | — | — | — |
| Forestville | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Walker Mill and Forestville are unincorporated communities (census-designated places) with no police department of their own.
Maryland towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| District Heights | C− | 5.2 | 18.2 |
| Thurmont | A− | 0.8 | 5.3 |
| Hampstead | B | 2.2 | 6.6 |
| Fruitland | C+ | 1.7 | 17.3 |
| Chestertown | C | 3.2 | 16.6 |
| Cheverly | C− | 2.8 | 26.1 |
The five graded Maryland towns closest to District Heights’ population (5,938), 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 District Heights. 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 District Heights’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (5,912 in 2025); our figure for District Heights is 5,938 (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 District Heights
Is District Heights, MD safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, District Heights reports more crime per resident than 83% of U.S. towns, a C− Safety Grade and #33 of 52 in Maryland. Its police reported 5.2 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 District Heights?
5.2 violent and 18.2 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.
Is crime going up or down in District Heights?
Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings.
Who polices District Heights?
District Heights’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “District Heights”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in District Heights.
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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.