Photo: Myotus · CC BY 4.0Park Rapids reports more crime per resident than 77% of U.S. towns
On crimes reported to the FBI by Park Rapids’ police in 2023–2025, it grades C− for safety: #144 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 Park Rapids
A job center
Park Rapids has 3,187 jobs based in town for 4,447 residents (Census LEHD), so some reports involve people who work or shop there rather than residents. How to read it ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Park 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 violent rate (3.6) 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.
For every 1,000 residents, about 13 property crimes reported
And about 4 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.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Park Rapids’ police reported 47 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 3.6 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 | Park Rapids | Rest of Minnesota | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2.9 | 3.4 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 2.5 | 3.1 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 4.1 | 3.1 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 4.1 | 2.7 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
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 Minnesota.
Show as a table
| Year | Park Rapids property | Rest of Minnesota property | Park Rapids violent | Rest of Minnesota violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 28.9 | 24.8 | 2.9 | 3.4 |
| 2023 | 23.1 | 21.8 | 2.5 | 3.1 |
| 2024 | 21.2 | 20.6 | 4.1 | 3.1 |
| 2025 | 12.8 | 18.2 | 4.1 | 2.7 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
75 crimes reported in 2025
18 violent and 57 property, as reported to the FBI by Park Rapids’ police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
One person died in crashes on Park Rapids’s roads in 2019–2023
Park Rapids had 1 fatal crash in five years, in which one person died.
That is about what is typical for Minnesota towns of 2,500–5,000 people: at their median rate (4.7 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Park Rapids’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Park Rapids’s own rate (4.7) 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.
Park Rapids and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Park Rapids | C− | 3.6 | 19.0 |
| Todd Township | — | — | — |
| Henrietta Township | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Todd Township and Henrietta Township have no FBI figures of their own for 2023–2025.
Minnesota towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Park Rapids | C− | 3.6 | 19.0 |
| Sauk Centre | B+ | 0.6 | 10.7 |
| Wayzata | B− | 1.2 | 11.9 |
| Wadena | C+ | 2.6 | 13.7 |
| Chisholm | C | 2.5 | 16.2 |
| Oak Park Heights | C− | 2.6 | 23.9 |
The five graded Minnesota towns closest to Park Rapids’ population (4,447), 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 Park 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 Park Rapids’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (4,437 in 2025); our figure for Park Rapids is 4,447 (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 Park Rapids
Is Park Rapids, MN safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Park Rapids reports more crime per resident than 77% of U.S. towns, a C− Safety Grade and #144 of 166 in Minnesota. Its police reported 3.6 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 Park Rapids?
3.6 violent and 19.0 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 Park Rapids?
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings.
Who polices Park Rapids?
Park Rapids’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Park Rapids”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Park Rapids.
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.