Photo: BMRR from en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Wells reports less crime per resident than 72% of U.S. towns
On crimes reported to the FBI by Wells’ police in 2023–2025, it grades B+ for safety: #37 of 78 graded towns in Maine.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of ME” is every other Maine 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 Wells
3 of the 4 graded towns next door report less crime
Of the 4 Maine towns on Wells’ borders, 4 have a Safety Grade: South Berwick (A), North Berwick (A), Kennebunk (A−), Ogunquit (B). Neighbors ↓
Among Maine towns, closer to the middle
Maine’s cities and towns report less crime than most states’, so Wells’ place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 53% of the 78 Maine towns we grade, against 72% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Wells’ 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 lower than in most U.S. towns; violent crime is the stronger of the two.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Wells’ police reported 23 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 0.6 per 1,000 residents a year, against 1.2 in the rest of Maine and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Wells | Rest of Maine | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 0.7 | 1.2 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 0.6 | 1.1 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
For every 1,000 residents, about 9 property crimes reported
And about 1 violent crime, 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.
Reported crime is steady
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 Maine.
Show as a table
| Year | Wells property | Rest of Maine property | Wells violent | Rest of Maine violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 8.2 | 15.6 | 0.7 | 1.2 |
| 2023 | 9.1 | 14.2 | 0.5 | 1.2 |
| 2024 | 7.2 | 14.7 | 0.8 | 1.1 |
| 2025 | 8.5 | 12.1 | 0.6 | 1.1 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
110 crimes reported in 2025
7 violent and 103 property, as reported to the FBI by Wells’ 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 Wells’s roads in 2019–2023
Wells had 8 fatal crashes in five years, in which eight people died. Most of these deaths (4 of 8) were on an Interstate passing through, so they say more about through-traffic than about the town’s own streets.
That is more than is typical for Maine towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (6.7 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Wells’s size would see about 4 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Wells’s own rate (13.7) 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.
Wells and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wells | B+ | 0.6 | 8.3 |
| Kennebunk | A− | 0.6 | 5.4 |
| Ogunquit | B | 0.6 | 11.8 |
| South Berwick | A | 0.3 | 3.8 |
| North Berwick | A | 0.9 | 3.0 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
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 Wells. 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 Wells’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (12,091 in 2025); our figure for Wells is 12,094 (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 Wells
Is Wells, ME safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Wells reports less crime per resident than 72% of U.S. towns, a B+ Safety Grade and #37 of 78 in Maine. Its police reported 0.6 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 1.2 in the rest of Maine and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Wells?
0.6 violent and 8.3 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Maine reports 1.2 and 13.7; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is crime going up or down in Wells?
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings.
Is Wells safer than Kennebunk?
Kennebunk reports less crime per resident than Wells: Kennebunk grades A− for safety and Wells B+. Kennebunk’s police reported 0.6 violent and 5.4 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Wells?
Wells’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Wells”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Wells.
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.