Photo: Tracey Elizabeth · CC BY 2.0Helena reports more crime per resident than 91% of U.S. towns
On crimes reported to the FBI by Helena’s police in 2023–2025, it grades D for safety: #20 of 26 graded towns in Montana.
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 Helena
1 of the 1 graded towns next door reports less crime
Of the 5 Montana towns on Helena’s borders, 1 have a Safety Grade: East Helena (C). Helena Valley West Central, Helena West Side, Helena Valley Southeast and Helena Valley Northeast are unincorporated communities (census-designated places) with no police department of their own. Neighbors ↓
Among Montana towns, closer to the middle
Montana’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Helena’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 23% of the 26 Montana towns we grade, against 9% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
A job center
Helena has 30,895 jobs based in town for 35,138 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.
What’s behind Helena’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.
For every 1,000 residents, about 29 property crimes reported
And about 6 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
Helena’s police reported 622 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.
Show as a table
| Year | Helena | Rest of Montana | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 7.6 | 5.9 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 6.8 | 5.8 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 5.1 | 5.4 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 5.8 | 5.4 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
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
| Year | Helena property | Rest of Montana property | Helena violent | Rest of Montana violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 32.1 | 30.9 | 7.6 | 5.9 |
| 2023 | 29.8 | 29.4 | 6.8 | 5.8 |
| 2024 | 25.8 | 25.4 | 5.1 | 5.4 |
| 2025 | 28.9 | 22.2 | 5.8 | 5.4 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
1,229 crimes reported in 2025
206 violent and 1,023 property, as reported to the FBI by Helena’s police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
10 people died in crashes on Helena’s roads in 2019–2023
Helena had 10 fatal crashes in five years, in which 10 people died; 3 were pedestrians. 2 died in crashes on an Interstate.
That is 5.9 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.
Helena and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Helena | D | 5.9 | 28.2 |
| Helena Valley West Central | — | — | — |
| Helena West Side | — | — | — |
| Helena Valley Southeast | — | — | — |
| East Helena | C | 4.1 | 15.1 |
| Helena Valley Northeast | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Helena Valley West Central, Helena West Side, Helena Valley Southeast and Helena Valley Northeast are unincorporated communities (census-designated places) with no police department of their own.
Montana towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Helena | D | 5.9 | 28.2 |
| Bozeman | C− | 4.1 | 17.5 |
| Kalispell | C− | 3.7 | 21.2 |
| Great Falls | D | 5.9 | 39.2 |
The five graded Montana towns closest to Helena’s population (35,138), 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 Helena. 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 Helena’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (35,377 in 2025); our figure for Helena is 35,138 (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 Helena
Is Helena, MT safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Helena reports more crime per resident than 91% of U.S. towns, a D Safety Grade and #20 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 Helena?
5.9 violent and 28.2 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Montana reports 5.5 and 25.7; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is crime going up or down in Helena?
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings.
How many homicides were there in Helena in 2025?
Helena’s police reported 0 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 0.0 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Is Helena safer than East Helena?
East Helena reports less crime per resident than Helena: East Helena grades C for safety and Helena D. East Helena’s police reported 4.1 violent and 15.1 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Helena?
Helena’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Helena”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Helena.
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.