Photo: Rowen Hansen · CC BY-SA 4.0Property crime per resident is higher in Sugar Creek than in 93% of U.S. towns
Neither of the two towns next door with figures records less crime per resident. What’s more, in a usual year, 3.0 violent crimes and 32.5 incidents of property crime are logged per 1,000 inhabitants; in the rest of Missouri, 5.8 and 26.2. Taking everything together, Sugar Creek scores D (#134 of 172 graded towns in Missouri): more crime per resident than 87% of U.S. towns, measured on crimes its police reported between 2023 and 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 Sugar Creek
Sugar Creek reports less crime than every graded town next door
Of the 2 Missouri towns on Sugar Creek’s borders, 2 have a Safety Grade: Independence (D), Kansas City (D−). Neighbors ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Sugar Creek’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 (3.0) 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.
Crime in Sugar Creek 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 4 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Sugar Creek | Rest of Missouri | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2.8 | 6.4 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 1.3 | 5.9 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 4.1 | 6.0 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 3.7 | 5.4 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Sugar Creek’s police reported 29 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 3.0 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.8 in the rest of Missouri and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | Sugar Creek property | Rest of Missouri property | Sugar Creek violent | Rest of Missouri violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 26.4 | 31.8 | 2.8 | 6.4 |
| 2023 | 35.6 | 28.8 | 1.3 | 5.9 |
| 2024 | 35.6 | 27.0 | 4.1 | 6.0 |
| 2025 | 26.2 | 22.9 | 3.7 | 5.4 |
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.
96 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.
12 violent and 84 property, as reported to the FBI by Sugar Creek’s police.
Six people died in crashes on Sugar Creek’s roads in 2019–2023
Sugar Creek had 5 fatal crashes in five years, in which six people died; 1 was a pedestrian.
That is more than 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 Sugar Creek’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Sugar Creek’s own rate (36.9) 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.
Sugar Creek and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sugar Creek | D | 3.0 | 32.5 |
| Independence | D | 4.4 | 26.1 |
| Kansas City | D− | 14.6 | 45.3 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Missouri towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sugar Creek | D | 3.0 | 32.5 |
| Oronogo | A | 1.0 | 2.8 |
| Ava | B+ | 1.2 | 6.0 |
| Louisiana | B | 1.9 | 8.4 |
| Byrnes Mill | C+ | 4.9 | 4.9 |
| Cassville | D | 3.8 | 49.5 |
The five graded Missouri towns closest to Sugar Creek’s population (3,209), 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 Sugar Creek. 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 Sugar Creek’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (3,202 in 2025); our figure for Sugar Creek is 3,209 (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 Sugar Creek
Is Sugar Creek, MO safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Sugar Creek reports more crime per resident than 87% of U.S. towns, a D Safety Grade and #134 of 172 in Missouri. Its police reported 3.0 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 Sugar Creek?
3.0 violent and 32.5 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 Sugar Creek safer than Independence?
Independence reports more crime per resident than Sugar Creek: Independence grades D for safety and Sugar Creek D. Independence’s police reported 4.4 violent and 26.1 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Sugar Creek?
Sugar Creek’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Sugar Creek”. 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 Sugar Creek.
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.