Photo: Michaelswikiusername at English Wikipedia · CC BY 3.0Reported crime per resident in Pontotoc fell 42% from 2023 to 2025
Overall, Pontotoc grades C for safety (#26 of 45 graded towns in Mississippi): more crime per resident than 74% 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 MS” is every other Mississippi 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 Pontotoc
Among Mississippi towns, closer to the middle
Mississippi’s cities and towns report less crime than most states’, so Pontotoc’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 42% of the 45 Mississippi towns we grade, against 26% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
A job center
Pontotoc has 5,490 jobs based in town for 6,156 residents (Census LEHD), so some reports involve people who work or shop there rather than residents. How to read it ↓
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 Pontotoc’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 (2.6) 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.
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 Mississippi.
Show as a table
| Year | Pontotoc property | Rest of Mississippi property | Pontotoc violent | Rest of Mississippi violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 32.9 | 25.1 | 4.5 | 2.9 |
| 2023 | 27.8 | 24.5 | 3.1 | 2.5 |
| 2024 | 18.8 | 22.1 | 2.5 | 2.5 |
| 2025 | 15.6 | 19.2 | 2.3 | 3.0 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
For every 1,000 residents, about 16 property crimes reported
And about 2 violent crimes, 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.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Pontotoc’s police reported 47 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 2.6 per 1,000 residents a year, against 2.7 in the rest of Mississippi and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Pontotoc | Rest of Mississippi | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 4.5 | 2.9 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 3.1 | 2.5 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 2.3 | 3.0 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
110 crimes reported in 2025
14 violent and 96 property, as reported to the FBI by Pontotoc’s police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
No one died in a crash on Pontotoc’s roads in 2019–2023
That is fewer than is typical for Mississippi towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (11.6 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Pontotoc’s size would see about 3 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Pontotoc’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.
Pontotoc and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pontotoc | C | 2.6 | 20.6 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Mississippi towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pontotoc | C | 2.6 | 20.6 |
| Pass Christian | B+ | 0.1 | 12.9 |
| Kosciusko | C+ | 1.5 | 16.1 |
| Forest | C− | 5.4 | 12.3 |
| Amory | D | 5.1 | 22.7 |
| Philadelphia | D | 4.4 | 27.9 |
The five graded Mississippi towns closest to Pontotoc’s population (6,156), 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 Pontotoc. 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 Pontotoc’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (6,153 in 2025); our figure for Pontotoc is 6,156 (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 Pontotoc
Is Pontotoc, MS safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Pontotoc reports more crime per resident than 74% of U.S. towns, a C Safety Grade and #26 of 45 in Mississippi. Its police reported 2.6 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 2.7 in the rest of Mississippi and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Pontotoc?
2.6 violent and 20.6 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Mississippi reports 2.7 and 21.6; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is crime going up or down in Pontotoc?
Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings.
Who polices Pontotoc?
Pontotoc’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Pontotoc”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Pontotoc.
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.