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Hamilton MT Main StreetPhoto: Itsa Ortiz · CC BY 2.0
D
Safety in Hamilton · FBI data, 2023–2025

Hamilton reports more crime per resident than 86% of U.S. towns

On crimes reported to the FBI by Hamilton’s police in 2023–2025, it grades D for safety: #18 of 26 graded towns in Montana.

Violent crime
4.9
per 1,000 a year · Below rest of MT (5.5)
U.S. (FBI national estimate) 3.6
Property crime
23.7
per 1,000 a year · Close to rest of MT (25.9)
U.S. (FBI national estimate) 17.6
Crimes reported
469
80 violent · 389 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 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 · In brief

What stands out about safety in Hamilton

Among Montana towns, closer to the middle

Montana’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Hamilton’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 31% of the 26 Montana towns we grade, against 14% nationally. Safety Grade ↓

A job center

Hamilton has 5,666 jobs based in town for 5,451 residents (Census LEHD), so some reports involve people who work or shop there rather than residents. How to read it ↓

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

Safety Grade

What’s behind Hamilton’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; property crime is the closer of the two to typical.

Where Hamilton sits
D Violent 4.9C− Property 23.7
All U.S. towns we grade (7,426)Less crime than 14%
More reported crimeLess reported crime
Montana towns we grade (26)Less crime than 31% · #18 of 26
Places of 5,000–25,000 people (3,282)Less crime than 13%
A fairly firm grade. Built on 469 reported crimes over three years. Ordinary swings could put Hamilton anywhere from D to C−.
A note on the data.Property crimes reported to the FBI went from 69 in 2022 to 139 in 2023; the grade uses the figures as published.

How TownRatings grades safety →

1,000 neighbors · one year

For every 1,000 residents, about 22 property crimes reported

And about 5 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.

Property crime (21.8)Violent crime (5.2)Everyone else

Violent crime per 1,000 residents, 2025

Hamilton5.2
Rest of MT5.4
U.S. (FBI)3.3

Property crime per 1,000 residents, 2025

Hamilton21.8
Rest of MT22.7
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.

Violent crime

Violent crime, by year and by type

Hamilton’s police reported 80 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 4.9 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.5 in the rest of Montana and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.

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 Montana.

Show as a table
YearHamilton propertyRest of Montana propertyHamilton violentRest of Montana violent
202213.431.21.46.1
202325.729.56.15.8
202423.625.53.35.4
202521.822.75.25.4

Crimes per 1,000 residents

What gets reported

150 crimes reported in 2025

29 violent and 121 property, as reported to the FBI by Hamilton’s police.

2025 offenses reported

Larceny / theft119
Burglary1
Vehicle theft1
Aggravated assault26
Robbery0
Rape3
Homicide0
Arson2
29
violent crimes
121
property crimes

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

On the roads

No one died in a crash on Hamilton’s roads in 2019–2023

That is about what is typical for Montana towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (3.5 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Hamilton’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Hamilton’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.

0
people died in crashes, 2019–2023
0
pedestrians among them
0
cyclists among them
0.0
per 100,000 a year · Montana towns of 5,000–25,000: 3.5

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

Hamilton and its neighbors

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

Hamilton
A rangeB rangeC rangeD rangeNot graded
TownGradeViolentProperty
HamiltonD4.923.7

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

Montana towns of a similar size

TownGradeViolentProperty
HamiltonD4.923.7
Columbia FallsC+2.714.9
SidneyC5.56.7
GlendiveC5.27.8
LewistownC−6.19.7
PolsonD−9.731.5

The five graded Montana towns closest to Hamilton’s population (5,451), 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 Hamilton. 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 Hamilton’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
  • Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (5,562 in 2025); our figure for Hamilton is 5,451 (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 Hamilton

Is Hamilton, MT safe?

On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Hamilton reports more crime per resident than 86% of U.S. towns, a D Safety Grade and #18 of 26 in Montana. Its police reported 4.9 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 Hamilton?

4.9 violent and 23.7 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Montana reports 5.5 and 25.9; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.

Is crime going up or down in Hamilton?

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

Who polices Hamilton?

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

Heads-up board

Neighbors looking out for each other in Hamilton.

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.