Photo: McGhiever · CC BY-SA 4.0Recorded crime per resident in Sauk Centre fell 59% from 2023 to 2025
Taking everything together, Sauk Centre scores B+ (#61 of 166 graded towns in Minnesota): less crime per resident than 65% of U.S. towns, measured on crimes its police reported between 2023 and 2025. Out of every 1,000 residents, 0.6 violent crime and 10.7 incidents of property crime are reported annually, against 3.0 and 20.2 in the rest of 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 Sauk Centre
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 Sauk Centre’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.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Sauk Centre property | Rest of Minnesota property | Sauk Centre violent | Rest of Minnesota violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 17.2 | 24.8 | 1.3 | 3.4 |
| 2023 | 14.8 | 21.8 | 0.6 | 3.1 |
| 2024 | 11.2 | 20.6 | 0.6 | 3.1 |
| 2025 | 5.9 | 18.2 | 0.4 | 2.7 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
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.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Sauk Centre | Rest of Minnesota | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.3 | 3.4 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 0.6 | 3.1 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.6 | 3.1 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 0.4 | 2.7 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Sauk Centre’s police reported 8 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 0.6 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 Sauk Centre 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 fewer than 1 violent crime, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
30 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.
2 violent and 28 property, as reported to the FBI by Sauk Centre’s police.
No one died in a crash on Sauk Centre’s roads in 2019–2023
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 Sauk Centre’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Sauk Centre’s own rate (0.0) 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.
Sauk Centre and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sauk Centre | B+ | 0.6 | 10.7 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Minnesota towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sauk Centre | B+ | 0.6 | 10.7 |
| St. James | B+ | 1.5 | 7.2 |
| Windom | B− | 2.7 | 7.5 |
| Chisholm | C | 2.5 | 16.2 |
| Oak Park Heights | C− | 2.6 | 23.9 |
| Dilworth | D | 1.6 | 57.8 |
The five graded Minnesota towns closest to Sauk Centre’s population (4,663), 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 Sauk Centre. 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 Sauk Centre’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (4,711 in 2025); our figure for Sauk Centre is 4,663 (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 Sauk Centre
Is Sauk Centre, MN safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Sauk Centre reports less crime per resident than 65% of U.S. towns, a B+ Safety Grade and #61 of 166 in Minnesota. Its police reported 0.6 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 Sauk Centre?
0.6 violent and 10.7 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.
Who polices Sauk Centre?
Sauk Centre’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Sauk Centre”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Neighbors looking out for each other in Sauk Centre.
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.