Photo: Jeanqueq · CC BY-SA 4.0On violent crime, Prior Lake has a lower rate per resident than 62% of U.S. towns
Its letter overall is B (#76 of 166 graded towns in Minnesota): close to the middle of U.S. towns, from crimes its police reported through 2023 to 2025. Year on year, 1.2 violent crimes and 11.0 incidents of property crime occur per 1,000 residents, compared with 3.0 and 20.3 in the rest of Minnesota. Add to that, of the 2 towns on its borders with figures, one records less crime per resident.
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 Prior Lake
1 of the 2 graded towns next door reports less crime
Of the 4 Minnesota towns on Prior Lake’s borders, 2 have a Safety Grade: Savage (B+), Shakopee (B−). Spring Lake Township and Credit River have no FBI figures of their own for 2023–2025. Neighbors ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Prior Lake’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 lower than in most U.S. towns; violent crime is the stronger of the two.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Prior Lake | Rest of Minnesota | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.6 | 3.4 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 1.2 | 3.2 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 1.1 | 3.1 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.4 | 2.7 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Prior Lake’s police reported 102 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.2 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.0 in the rest of Minnesota and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Prior Lake 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 1 violent crime, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | Prior Lake property | Rest of Minnesota property | Prior Lake violent | Rest of Minnesota violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 16.8 | 24.9 | 1.6 | 3.4 |
| 2023 | 12.1 | 21.9 | 1.2 | 3.2 |
| 2024 | 10.7 | 20.7 | 1.1 | 3.1 |
| 2025 | 10.1 | 18.3 | 1.4 | 2.7 |
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 Minnesota.
321 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.
38 violent and 283 property, as reported to the FBI by Prior Lake’s police.
Two people died in crashes on Prior Lake’s roads in 2019–2023
Prior Lake 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 25,000–100,000 people: at their median rate (4.2 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Prior Lake’s size would see about 6 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Prior Lake’s own rate (1.4) 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.
Prior Lake and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prior Lake | B | 1.2 | 11.0 |
| Spring Lake Township | — | — | — |
| Shakopee | B− | 1.1 | 12.2 |
| Credit River | — | — | — |
| Savage | B+ | 0.9 | 7.2 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Spring Lake Township and Credit River have no FBI figures of their own for 2023–2025.
Minnesota towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prior Lake | B | 1.2 | 11.0 |
| Ramsey | A | 0.5 | 4.8 |
| Elk River | B+ | 0.9 | 9.3 |
| Owatonna | B | 1.8 | 7.8 |
| Austin | C+ | 2.0 | 16.5 |
| Winona | C | 1.7 | 22.2 |
The five graded Minnesota towns closest to Prior Lake’s population (28,140), 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 Prior Lake. 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 Prior Lake’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (28,117 in 2025); our figure for Prior Lake is 28,140 (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 Prior Lake
Is Prior Lake, MN safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Prior Lake reports less crime per resident than 57% of U.S. towns, a B Safety Grade and #76 of 166 in Minnesota. Its police reported 1.2 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 Prior Lake?
1.2 violent and 11.0 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Minnesota reports 3.0 and 20.3; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
How many homicides were there in Prior Lake in 2025?
Prior Lake’s police reported 1 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 3.6 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Is Prior Lake safer than Shakopee?
Shakopee reports more crime per resident than Prior Lake: Shakopee grades B− for safety and Prior Lake B. Shakopee’s police reported 1.1 violent and 12.2 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Prior Lake?
Prior Lake’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Prior Lake”. 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 Prior Lake.
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.