Albert Lea reports more crime per resident than 66% of U.S. towns
On crimes reported to the FBI by Albert Lea’s police in 2023–2025, it grades C for safety: #130 of 166 graded towns in Minnesota.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of MN” is every other Minnesota 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 Albert Lea
Among Minnesota towns, lower
Minnesota’s cities and towns report less crime than most states’, so Albert Lea’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 22% of the 166 Minnesota towns we grade, against 34% 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 Albert Lea’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.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Albert Lea’s police reported 105 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.9 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.0 in the rest of Minnesota and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Albert Lea | Rest of Minnesota | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.5 | 3.4 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 2.5 | 3.1 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 2.1 | 3.1 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.2 | 2.7 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
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, 2022–2025, against the rest of Minnesota.
Show as a table
| Year | Albert Lea property | Rest of Minnesota property | Albert Lea violent | Rest of Minnesota violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 17.7 | 24.9 | 1.5 | 3.4 |
| 2023 | 20.6 | 21.8 | 2.5 | 3.1 |
| 2024 | 14.9 | 20.7 | 2.1 | 3.1 |
| 2025 | 19.3 | 18.2 | 1.2 | 2.7 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
For every 1,000 residents, about 19 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.
371 crimes reported in 2025
22 violent and 349 property, as reported to the FBI by Albert Lea’s police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
Two people died in crashes on Albert Lea’s roads in 2019–2023
Albert Lea had 2 fatal crashes in five years, in which two people died; 1 was a cyclist.
That is about what is typical for Minnesota towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (3.0 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Albert Lea’s size would see about 3 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Albert Lea’s own rate (2.2) 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.
Albert Lea and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Albert Lea | C | 1.9 | 18.3 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Minnesota towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Albert Lea | C | 1.9 | 18.3 |
| Buffalo | A | 0.5 | 4.7 |
| Stillwater | B+ | 0.9 | 7.9 |
| Anoka | B− | 2.4 | 11.1 |
| Hopkins | C+ | 2.7 | 14.3 |
| Red Wing | C | 2.0 | 19.1 |
The five graded Minnesota towns closest to Albert Lea’s population (18,217), 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 Albert Lea. 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 Albert Lea’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (18,074 in 2025); our figure for Albert Lea is 18,217 (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 Albert Lea
Is Albert Lea, MN safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Albert Lea reports more crime per resident than 66% of U.S. towns, a C Safety Grade and #130 of 166 in Minnesota. Its police reported 1.9 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.0 in the rest of Minnesota and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Albert Lea?
1.9 violent and 18.3 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Minnesota reports 3.0 and 20.2; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is crime going up or down in Albert Lea?
Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings.
Who polices Albert Lea?
Albert Lea’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Albert Lea”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Albert Lea.
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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.