Photo: Montanabw · CC BY-SA 3.0Per resident, Great Falls records more crime than 94% of U.S. towns
The rate the grade counts dropped 18% from 2023 to 2025. On crimes Great Falls’ police reported from 2023 to 2025, it grades D for safety: #22 of 26 graded towns in Montana. Police counts work out at 5.9 violent crimes and 39.2 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents annually; in the rest of Montana they are 5.5 and 24.1. Violent crime here is higher than in 92% of U.S. towns; property crime, higher than in 96%.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of MT” is every other Montana 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 Great Falls
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 Great Falls’ 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.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Great Falls property | Rest of Montana property | Great Falls violent | Rest of Montana violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 44.8 | 29.1 | 5.0 | 6.2 |
| 2023 | 46.8 | 27.2 | 5.7 | 5.8 |
| 2024 | 34.3 | 24.3 | 5.7 | 5.3 |
| 2025 | 36.4 | 20.9 | 6.3 | 5.3 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
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 Montana.
Crime in Great Falls 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 6 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 | Great Falls | Rest of Montana | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 5.0 | 6.2 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 5.7 | 5.8 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 5.7 | 5.3 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 6.3 | 5.3 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Great Falls’ police reported 1,067 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 5.9 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.5 in the rest of Montana and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
2,560 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.
378 violent and 2,182 property, as reported to the FBI by Great Falls’ police.
17 people died in crashes on Great Falls’s roads in 2019–2023
Great Falls had 17 fatal crashes in five years, in which 17 people died; 4 were pedestrians and 1 was a cyclist.
That is 5.6 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as the median for Montana towns of 25,000–100,000 people (5.8, 6 towns).
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.
Great Falls and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Great Falls | D | 5.9 | 39.2 |
| Malmstrom AFB | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Malmstrom AFB is an unincorporated community (a census-designated place) with no police department of its own.
Montana towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Great Falls | D | 5.9 | 39.2 |
| Bozeman | C− | 4.1 | 17.5 |
| Kalispell | C− | 3.7 | 21.2 |
| Helena | D | 5.9 | 28.2 |
| Missoula | D | 5.8 | 33.9 |
The five graded Montana towns closest to Great Falls’ population (60,208), 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 Great Falls. A citywide rate doesn’t show where incidents happen, and that can differ a lot from one part of the city to another.
- Visitors count too. Incidents involving people who work, shop or visit are counted against Great Falls’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (59,904 in 2025); our figure for Great Falls is 60,208 (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 Great Falls
Is Great Falls, MT safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Great Falls reports more crime per resident than 94% of U.S. towns, a D Safety Grade and #22 of 26 in Montana. Its police reported 5.9 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.5 in the rest of Montana and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Great Falls?
5.9 violent and 39.2 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Montana reports 5.5 and 24.1; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
How many homicides were there in Great Falls in 2025?
Great Falls’s police reported 2 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 3.3 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Who polices Great Falls?
Great Falls’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Great Falls”. 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 Great Falls.
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.