Harry Truman Birthplace Memorial · Photo: Karen Montgomery · CC BY-SA 2.0Reported crime per resident in Lamar fell 67% from 2023 to 2025
Overall, Lamar grades C for safety (#98 of 172 graded towns in Missouri): more crime per resident than 71% of U.S. towns, on crimes its police reported to the FBI in 2023–2025.
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 Lamar
Among Missouri towns, closer to the middle
Missouri’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Lamar’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 43% of the 172 Missouri towns we grade, against 29% 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 Lamar’s grade
Property crimes plus four times violent crimes reported to the FBI per resident, 2023–2025, on a national curve. Violent crime holds Lamar’s grade up; property crime pulls it down.
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 Missouri.
Show as a table
| Year | Lamar property | Rest of Missouri property | Lamar violent | Rest of Missouri violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 44.2 | 31.8 | 1.4 | 6.4 |
| 2023 | 28.3 | 28.8 | 1.9 | 5.9 |
| 2024 | 36.2 | 27.0 | 0.9 | 6.0 |
| 2025 | 9.3 | 22.9 | 0.7 | 5.4 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Violent crime, by year and by type
Lamar’s police reported 15 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.2 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.8 in the rest of Missouri and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Lamar | Rest of Missouri | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.4 | 6.4 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 1.9 | 5.9 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.9 | 6.0 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 0.7 | 5.4 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
For every 1,000 residents, about 9 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.
43 crimes reported in 2025
3 violent and 40 property, as reported to the FBI by Lamar’s 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 Lamar’s roads in 2019–2023
Lamar had 1 fatal crash in five years, in which one person died.
That is about what is typical for Missouri towns of 2,500–5,000 people: at their median rate (7.2 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Lamar’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Lamar’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.
Lamar and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lamar | C | 1.2 | 24.6 |
| City Township | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. City Township has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025.
Missouri towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lamar | C | 1.2 | 24.6 |
| Moscow Mills | A− | 1.0 | 3.5 |
| Lexington | C+ | 3.4 | 9.8 |
| Breckenridge Hills | D | 8.8 | 18.9 |
| Normandy | D | 8.4 | 25.9 |
| Butler | D− | 10.8 | 25.1 |
The five graded Missouri towns closest to Lamar’s population (4,337), 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 Lamar. 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 Lamar’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (4,308 in 2025); our figure for Lamar is 4,337 (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 Lamar
Is Lamar, MO safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Lamar reports more crime per resident than 71% of U.S. towns, a C Safety Grade and #98 of 172 in Missouri. Its police reported 1.2 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 Lamar?
1.2 violent and 24.6 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Missouri reports 5.8 and 26.2; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is crime going up or down in Lamar?
Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings.
Who polices Lamar?
Lamar’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Lamar”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Lamar.
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.