Captain Robert S. Craig Cottage · Photo: Linda Roy Walls · CC BY-SA 4.0What is recorded in Ocean City, and why there is no grade
Ocean City’s police reported to the FBI for 2024 but not 2023 or 2025, so there is no Safety Grade: the grade needs all three years, 2023–2025. Of the graded towns, Ocean Pines is the closest, at A+.
For every 1,000 residents, about 88 property crimes reported
Violent crime per 1,000 residents, 2024
Property crime per 1,000 residents, 2024
Crimes reported to police in 2024 per resident; one person can be the victim of more than one, and some reports involve visitors.
And about 10 violent crimes, in 2024. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
The years Ocean City’s police reported
Show as a table
| Year | Ocean City | Rest of Maryland | Ocean City | Rest of Maryland |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 108.1 | 26.8 | 18.5 | 10.7 |
| 2023 | not reported | 30.7 | not reported | 8.9 |
| 2024 | 88.1 | 30.0 | 9.8 | 8.9 |
| 2025 | not reported | 27.0 | not reported | 7.3 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents, against the rest of Maryland. A year the department didn’t report in full is a gap, not a zero.
679 crimes reported in 2024
2024 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
68 violent and 611 property, as reported to the FBI by Ocean City’s police.
The nearest Maryland towns with a Safety Grade
| Town | Grade | Distance | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ocean Pines | A+ | 5 mi | 0.2 | 2.5 |
| Berlin | B+ | 10 mi | 0.7 | 7.9 |
| Pittsville | A | 18 mi | 0.6 | 1.6 |
| Snow Hill | B | 24 mi | 1.9 | 6.2 |
| Salisbury | D | 28 mi | 9.3 | 26.6 |
| Fruitland | C+ | 31 mi | 1.7 | 17.3 |
Straight-line distance from the center of Ocean City. Nearby towns can differ a lot from Ocean City.
Each town’s own police figures, per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Seven people died in crashes on Ocean City’s roads in 2019–2023
Ocean City had 7 fatal crashes in five years, in which seven people died; 4 were pedestrians.
That is more than 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 Ocean City’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Ocean City’s own rate (20.3) 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.
Ocean City and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
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 Ocean City. 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 Ocean City’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (6,938 in 2024); our figure for Ocean City is 6,840 (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 Ocean City
Is Ocean City, MD safe?
There is no Safety Grade for Ocean City. The nearest Maryland towns with a grade are Ocean Pines (A+, 5 mi), Berlin (B+, 10 mi), Pittsville (A, 18 mi).
Who polices Ocean City?
Ocean City’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Ocean City”. 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 Ocean City.
Crime: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Crime Data Explorer: offenses known to law enforcement by city, 2024, 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.