Photo: Paul Sableman · CC BY 2.0On property crime, Kirkwood has a higher rate per resident than three in five U.S. towns
Behind the grade sit 1.7 violent crimes and 14.0 incidents of property crime per 1,000 people a year, where the comparison is 5.8 and 26.3 in the rest of Missouri. Even so, the overall Safety Grade is C+ (#76 of 172 graded towns in Missouri), which means close to the middle of U.S. towns, judged on crimes its police reported from 2023 to 2025. Next door, 2 of 4 towns with figures record less crime per resident.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of MO” is every other Missouri 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 Kirkwood
2 of the 4 graded towns next door report less crime
Of the 7 Missouri towns on Kirkwood’s borders, 4 have a Safety Grade: Sunset Hills (B−), Crestwood (B−), Frontenac (C+), Des Peres (D). Glendale and Warson Woods reported to the FBI for 2023 and 2024 but not 2025. Oakland has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025. Neighbors ↓
Among Missouri towns, closer to the middle
Missouri’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Kirkwood’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 56% of the 172 Missouri towns we grade, against 44% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Kirkwood’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 (1.7) 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. Its property rate (14.0) 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.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Kirkwood | Rest of Missouri | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.4 | 6.4 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 1.6 | 5.9 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 2.1 | 6.0 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.5 | 5.5 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Kirkwood’s police reported 152 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.7 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.8 in the rest of Missouri and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Kirkwood 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 2 violent crimes, 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 | Kirkwood property | Rest of Missouri property | Kirkwood violent | Rest of Missouri violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 17.5 | 31.9 | 1.4 | 6.4 |
| 2023 | 14.9 | 28.9 | 1.6 | 5.9 |
| 2024 | 14.0 | 27.1 | 2.1 | 6.0 |
| 2025 | 13.0 | 22.9 | 1.5 | 5.5 |
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 Missouri.
425 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.
43 violent and 382 property, as reported to the FBI by Kirkwood’s police.
Nine people died in crashes on Kirkwood’s roads in 2019–2023
Kirkwood had 7 fatal crashes in five years, in which nine people died; 2 were pedestrians. Most of these deaths (5 of 9) were on an Interstate passing through, so they say more about through-traffic than about the town’s own streets.
That is about what is typical for Missouri towns of 25,000–100,000 people: at their median rate (6.9 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Kirkwood’s size would see about 10 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Kirkwood’s own rate (6.1) 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.
Kirkwood and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kirkwood | C+ | 1.7 | 14.0 |
| Des Peres | D | 0.6 | 43.3 |
| Glendale | — | — | — |
| Sunset Hills | B− | 1.1 | 13.4 |
| Warson Woods | — | — | — |
| Frontenac | C+ | 0.6 | 21.2 |
| Crestwood | B− | 1.1 | 14.2 |
| Oakland | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Glendale and Warson Woods reported to the FBI for 2023 and 2024 but not 2025. Oakland has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025.
Missouri towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kirkwood | C+ | 1.7 | 14.0 |
| Ballwin | A− | 0.6 | 5.2 |
| Liberty | C+ | 1.5 | 15.4 |
| Maryland Heights | C+ | 2.2 | 14.2 |
| Gladstone | C | 3.5 | 17.2 |
| Raytown | D | 7.6 | 34.6 |
The five graded Missouri towns closest to Kirkwood’s population (29,331), 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 Kirkwood. 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 Kirkwood’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (29,321 in 2025); our figure for Kirkwood is 29,331 (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 Kirkwood
Is Kirkwood, MO safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Kirkwood reports more crime per resident than 56% of U.S. towns, a C+ Safety Grade and #76 of 172 in Missouri. Its police reported 1.7 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.8 in the rest of Missouri and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Kirkwood?
1.7 violent and 14.0 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Missouri reports 5.8 and 26.3; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
How many homicides were there in Kirkwood in 2025?
Kirkwood’s police reported 0 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 0.0 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Is Kirkwood safer than Des Peres?
Des Peres reports more crime per resident than Kirkwood: Des Peres grades D for safety and Kirkwood C+. Des Peres’s police reported 0.6 violent and 43.3 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Kirkwood?
Kirkwood’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Kirkwood”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
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Neighbors looking out for each other in Kirkwood.
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.