Island City Historic District · Photo: Catherine Ottarson · CC BY-SA 3.0Eaton Rapids sees more violent crime per resident than four in five U.S. towns
Its police logs show 4.3 violent crimes and 12.5 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents a year, while in the rest of Michigan the numbers are 5.4 and 17.5. Weighing it all, Eaton Rapids earns C for safety (#187 of 266 graded towns in Michigan), with more crime per resident than 72% of U.S. towns, on crimes its police reported over 2023 to 2025. Per resident, the graded rate barely moved from 2023 to 2025.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of MI” is every other Michigan 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’s behind Eaton Rapids’ 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. Its property rate (12.5) 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.
Crime in Eaton Rapids per 1,000 residents
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.
And about 6 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Eaton Rapids | Rest of Michigan | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 5.0 | 5.7 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 3.1 | 5.7 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 3.9 | 5.4 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 6.0 | 5.1 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Eaton Rapids’ police reported 67 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 4.3 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.4 in the rest of Michigan and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | Eaton Rapids property | Rest of Michigan property | Eaton Rapids violent | Rest of Michigan violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 16.8 | 18.7 | 5.0 | 5.7 |
| 2023 | 13.9 | 19.4 | 3.1 | 5.7 |
| 2024 | 12.6 | 17.4 | 3.9 | 5.4 |
| 2025 | 10.8 | 15.6 | 6.0 | 5.1 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
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 Michigan.
87 crimes reported in 2025
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
31 violent and 56 property, as reported to the FBI by Eaton Rapids’ police.
Two people died in crashes on Eaton Rapids’s roads in 2019–2023
Eaton Rapids had 2 fatal crashes in five years, in which two people died.
That is about what is typical for Michigan towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (6.8 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Eaton Rapids’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Eaton Rapids’s own rate (7.7) 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.
Eaton Rapids and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eaton Rapids | C | 4.3 | 12.5 |
| Hamlin Township | — | — | — |
| Eaton Rapids Township | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Hamlin Township and Eaton Rapids Township have no FBI figures of their own for 2023–2025.
Michigan towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eaton Rapids | C | 4.3 | 12.5 |
| Gladstone | A | 0.6 | 4.1 |
| Allegan | A− | 1.0 | 4.6 |
| Frankenmuth | B | 1.7 | 8.0 |
| Davison | B | 1.9 | 7.7 |
| Utica | C− | 3.8 | 26.3 |
The five graded Michigan towns closest to Eaton Rapids’ population (5,218), by grade.
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 Eaton Rapids. 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 Eaton Rapids’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (5,177 in 2025); our figure for Eaton Rapids is 5,218 (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 Eaton Rapids
Is Eaton Rapids, MI safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Eaton Rapids reports more crime per resident than 72% of U.S. towns, a C Safety Grade and #187 of 266 in Michigan. Its police reported 4.3 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.4 in the rest of Michigan and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Eaton Rapids?
4.3 violent and 12.5 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Michigan reports 5.4 and 17.5; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Eaton Rapids?
Eaton Rapids’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Eaton Rapids”. 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 Eaton Rapids.
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.