Photo: Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) at English Wikipedia · CC BY 2.5The crimes the grade counts fell 67% per resident in Franklin Township from 2023 to 2025
Next door, 2 of 4 towns with figures record less crime per resident. Violence and property crime split as 0.7 violent crime and 9.2 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents a year, beside 2.1 and 13.8 in the rest of New Jersey. What’s more, on crimes reported by Franklin Township’s police in 2023–2025, it grades B+ for safety: #162 of 342 graded towns in New Jersey.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of NJ” is every other New Jersey 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 Franklin Township
2 of the 4 graded towns next door report less crime
Of the 8 New Jersey towns on Franklin Township’s borders, 4 have a Safety Grade: Hillsborough Township (A−), Princeton (A−), South Brunswick Township (B+), New Brunswick (D). Montgomery Township, Manville and Bridgewater Township reported to the FBI for 2024 and 2025 but not 2023. Piscataway Township reported to the FBI for 2023 and 2024 but not 2025. Neighbors ↓
Among New Jersey towns, closer to the middle
New Jersey’s cities and towns report less crime than most states’, so Franklin Township’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 53% of the 342 New Jersey towns we grade, against 69% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
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 Franklin Township’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 lower than in most U.S. towns; violent crime is the stronger of the two.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Franklin Township property | Rest of New Jersey property | Franklin Township violent | Rest of New Jersey violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 8.7 | 13.9 | 1.0 | 1.9 |
| 2023 | 12.2 | 14.8 | 0.9 | 2.2 |
| 2024 | 11.3 | 14.0 | 0.8 | 2.2 |
| 2025 | 4.0 | 12.7 | 0.3 | 2.0 |
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 New Jersey.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Franklin Township | Rest of New Jersey | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.0 | 1.9 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 0.9 | 2.2 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.8 | 2.2 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 0.3 | 2.0 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Franklin Township’s police reported 139 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 0.7 per 1,000 residents a year, against 2.1 in the rest of New Jersey and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Franklin Township 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 fewer than 1 violent crime, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
304 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. 2025 figures come from FBI Crime Data Explorer, which publishes violent crime, homicides, robberies and property crime only.
20 violent and 284 property, as reported to the FBI by Franklin Township’s police.
18 people died in crashes on Franklin Township’s roads in 2019–2023
Franklin Township had 17 fatal crashes in five years, in which 18 people died; 5 were pedestrians.
That is 5.2 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as the median for New Jersey towns of 25,000–100,000 people (5.8, 102 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.
Franklin Township and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin Township | B+ | 0.7 | 9.2 |
| Montgomery Township | — | — | — |
| Hillsborough Township | A− | 0.7 | 4.3 |
| New Brunswick | D | 6.7 | 23.9 |
| South Brunswick Township | B+ | 1.2 | 7.4 |
| Piscataway Township | — | — | — |
| Manville | — | — | — |
| Bridgewater Township | — | — | — |
| Princeton | A− | 0.5 | 6.8 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Montgomery Township, Manville and Bridgewater Township reported to the FBI for 2024 and 2025 but not 2023. Piscataway Township reported to the FBI for 2023 and 2024 but not 2025.
New Jersey towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin Township | B+ | 0.7 | 9.2 |
| Middletown Township | A− | 0.6 | 6.1 |
| Gloucester Township | B | 0.8 | 11.7 |
| East Orange | C− | 4.6 | 19.6 |
| Passaic | D | 6.4 | 19.6 |
| Camden | D− | 14.6 | 31.3 |
The five graded New Jersey towns closest to Franklin Township’s population (69,105), 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 Franklin Township. 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 Franklin Township’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (70,400 in 2025); our figure for Franklin Township is 69,105 (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 Franklin Township
Is Franklin Township, NJ safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Franklin Township reports less crime per resident than 69% of U.S. towns, a B+ Safety Grade and #162 of 342 in New Jersey. Its police reported 0.7 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 2.1 in the rest of New Jersey and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Franklin Township?
0.7 violent and 9.2 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of New Jersey reports 2.1 and 13.8; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
How many homicides were there in Franklin Township in 2025?
Franklin Township’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 Franklin Township safer than Hillsborough Township?
Hillsborough Township reports less crime per resident than Franklin Township: Hillsborough Township grades A− for safety and Franklin Township B+. Hillsborough Township’s police reported 0.7 violent and 4.3 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Franklin Township?
Franklin Township’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Franklin Township Police Department, Somerset County”. 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 Franklin Township.
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.