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Downtown Smithville Historic District NRHP 14000159 Clay County, MOPhoto: Jon Roanhaus · CC BY-SA 4.0
B+
Safety in Smithville · FBI data, 2023–2025

Smithville reports less crime per resident than 66% of U.S. towns

On crimes reported to the FBI by Smithville’s police in 2023–2025, it grades B+ for safety: #29 of 172 graded towns in Missouri.

Violent crime
1.4
per 1,000 a year · Well below rest of MO (5.8)
U.S. (FBI national estimate) 3.6
Property crime
7.0
per 1,000 a year · Well below rest of MO (26.3)
U.S. (FBI national estimate) 17.6
Crimes reported
276
47 violent · 229 property
2023–2025
Trend
→ Steady
2023 to 2025
within ordinary swings

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 · In brief

What stands out about safety in Smithville

Among Missouri towns, higher

Missouri’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Smithville’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 83% of the 172 Missouri towns we grade, against 66% nationally. Safety Grade ↓

Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.

Safety Grade

What’s behind Smithville’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; property crime is the stronger of the two.

Where Smithville sits
B Violent 1.4B+ Property 7.0
All U.S. towns we grade (7,426)Less crime than 66%
More reported crimeLess reported crime
Missouri towns we grade (172)Less crime than 83% · #29 of 172
Places of 5,000–25,000 people (3,282)Less crime than 65%
A fairly firm grade. Built on 276 reported crimes over three years. Ordinary swings could put Smithville anywhere from B to B+.

How TownRatings grades safety →

Violent crime

Violent crime, by year and by type

Smithville’s police reported 47 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.4 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.8 in the rest of Missouri and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.

1,000 neighbors · one year

For every 1,000 residents, about 6 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.

Property crime (5.7)Violent crime (1.2)Everyone else

Violent crime per 1,000 residents, 2025

Smithville1.2
Rest of MO5.5
U.S. (FBI)3.3

Property crime per 1,000 residents, 2025

Smithville5.7
Rest of MO22.9
U.S. (FBI)15.5

Crimes reported to police in 2025 per resident; one person can be the victim of more than one, and some reports involve visitors.

Trend

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 Missouri.

Show as a table
YearSmithville propertyRest of Missouri propertySmithville violentRest of Missouri violent
20225.631.91.26.4
20238.328.91.35.9
20247.127.01.86.0
20255.722.91.25.5

Crimes per 1,000 residents

What gets reported

76 crimes reported in 2025

13 violent and 63 property, as reported to the FBI by Smithville’s police.

2025 offenses reported

Larceny / theft54
Burglary2
Vehicle theft7
Aggravated assault10
Robbery0
Rape3
Homicide0
Arson0
13
violent crimes
63
property crimes

Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.

On the roads

Five people died in crashes on Smithville’s roads in 2019–2023

Smithville had 5 fatal crashes in five years, in which five people died; 1 was a pedestrian.

That is about what is typical for Missouri towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (7.6 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Smithville’s size would see about 4 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Smithville’s own rate (9.3) is context, not a ranking.

5
people died in crashes, 2019–2023
1
pedestrian among them
0
cyclists among them
9.3
per 100,000 a year · Missouri towns of 5,000–25,000: 7.6

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.

Next door

Smithville and its neighbors

How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.

Smithville
A rangeB rangeC rangeD rangeNot graded
TownGradeViolentProperty
SmithvilleB+1.47.0

Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.

Missouri towns of a similar size

TownGradeViolentProperty
SmithvilleB+1.47.0
KearneyB1.86.2
Town and CountryB0.512.8
BolivarC+1.815.8
Excelsior SpringsC−3.021.9
BridgetonD−6.550.5

The five graded Missouri towns closest to Smithville’s population (11,160), by grade.

How to read these numbers

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 Smithville. 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 Smithville’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
  • Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (11,096 in 2025); our figure for Smithville is 11,160 (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 Smithville

Is Smithville, MO safe?

On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Smithville reports less crime per resident than 66% of U.S. towns, a B+ Safety Grade and #29 of 172 in Missouri. Its police reported 1.4 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 Smithville?

1.4 violent and 7.0 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.

Is crime going up or down in Smithville?

Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings.

Who polices Smithville?

Smithville’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Smithville”. Its figures are the ones on this page.

Heads-up board

Neighbors looking out for each other in Smithville.

Town Square →
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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.