Photo: Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0Reported crime per resident in La Plata fell 30% from 2023 to 2025
Overall, La Plata grades C+ for safety (#19 of 52 graded towns in Maryland): more crime per resident than 63% 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 La Plata
Among Maryland towns, closer to the middle
Maryland’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so La Plata’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 63% of the 52 Maryland towns we grade, against 37% 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 La Plata’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. Its property rate (16.6) is below the FBI’s national estimate (17.6) but higher than in most individual towns: the national figure is weighted by people, and the grade counts towns.
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 | La Plata property | Rest of Maryland property | La Plata violent | Rest of Maryland violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 19.2 | 30.8 | 2.0 | 9.0 |
| 2024 | 17.5 | 30.3 | 2.2 | 9.0 |
| 2025 | 13.3 | 27.1 | 1.5 | 7.4 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Violent crime, by year and by type
La Plata’s police reported 64 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.
Show as a table
| Year | La Plata | Rest of Maryland | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2.0 | 9.0 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 2.2 | 9.0 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.5 | 7.4 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
For every 1,000 residents, about 13 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.
174 crimes reported in 2025
18 violent and 156 property, as reported to the FBI by La Plata’s police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
Three people died in crashes on La Plata’s roads in 2019–2023
La Plata had 3 fatal crashes in five years, in which three people died; 1 was a pedestrian.
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 La Plata’s size would see about 3 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so La Plata’s own rate (5.6) 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.
La Plata and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| La Plata | C+ | 1.9 | 16.6 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Maryland towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| La Plata | C+ | 1.9 | 16.6 |
| Ocean Pines | A+ | 0.2 | 2.5 |
| Mount Airy | C+ | 3.3 | 10.3 |
| Bel Air | C | 1.9 | 21.6 |
| New Carrollton | C− | 3.1 | 20.6 |
| Cambridge | D | 6.0 | 36.1 |
The five graded Maryland towns closest to La Plata’s population (12,137), 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 La Plata. 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 La Plata’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (11,700 in 2025); our figure for La Plata is 12,137 (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 La Plata
Is La Plata, MD safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, La Plata reports more crime per resident than 63% of U.S. towns, a C+ Safety Grade and #19 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 La Plata?
1.9 violent and 16.6 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.
Is crime going up or down in La Plata?
Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings.
Who polices La Plata?
La Plata’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “La Plata”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in La Plata.
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.