Navesink Light Station · Photo: Acroterion · CC BY-SA 4.0Highlands reports less crime per resident than 73% of U.S. towns
On crimes reported to the FBI by Highlands’ police in 2023–2025, it grades B+ for safety: #138 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 Highlands
1 of the 2 graded towns next door reports less crime
Of the 3 New Jersey towns on Highlands’ borders, 2 have a Safety Grade: Middletown Township (A−), Sea Bright (B+). Atlantic Highlands 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 Highlands’ place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 60% of the 342 New Jersey towns we grade, against 73% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Highlands’ 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; property crime is the stronger of the two.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Highlands’ police reported 20 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.5 per 1,000 residents a year, against 2.1 in the rest of New Jersey and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Highlands | Rest of New Jersey | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.7 | 1.9 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 1.1 | 2.2 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 1.2 | 2.2 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 2.3 | 2.0 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
For every 1,000 residents, about 4 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.
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 New Jersey.
Show as a table
| Year | Highlands property | Rest of New Jersey property | Highlands violent | Rest of New Jersey violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2.6 | 13.9 | 1.7 | 1.9 |
| 2023 | 3.9 | 14.8 | 1.1 | 2.2 |
| 2024 | 5.0 | 14.0 | 1.2 | 2.2 |
| 2025 | 4.2 | 12.6 | 2.3 | 2.0 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
28 crimes reported in 2025
10 violent and 18 property, as reported to the FBI by Highlands’ 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 Highlands’s roads in 2019–2023
That is about what is typical for New Jersey towns of 2,500–5,000 people: at their median rate (4.9 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Highlands’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Highlands’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.
Highlands and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Highlands | B+ | 1.5 | 4.3 |
| Atlantic Highlands | — | — | — |
| Middletown Township | A− | 0.6 | 6.1 |
| Sea Bright | B+ | 1.9 | 4.4 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Atlantic Highlands reported to the FBI for 2023 and 2024 but not 2025.
New Jersey towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Highlands | B+ | 1.5 | 4.3 |
| Boonton Township | A+ | 0.2 | 2.7 |
| Medford Lakes | A | 0.2 | 3.6 |
| Merchantville | B− | 1.1 | 15.4 |
| Egg Harbor City | C | 2.4 | 17.6 |
| Magnolia | C− | 3.2 | 28.8 |
The five graded New Jersey towns closest to Highlands’ population (4,350), 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 Highlands. 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 Highlands’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (4,272 in 2025); our figure for Highlands is 4,350 (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 Highlands
Is Highlands, NJ safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Highlands reports less crime per resident than 73% of U.S. towns, a B+ Safety Grade and #138 of 342 in New Jersey. Its police reported 1.5 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 Highlands?
1.5 violent and 4.3 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.
Is crime going up or down in Highlands?
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings.
Is Highlands safer than Middletown Township?
Middletown Township reports less crime per resident than Highlands: Middletown Township grades A− for safety and Highlands B+. Middletown Township’s police reported 0.6 violent and 6.1 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Highlands?
Highlands’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Highlands”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Highlands.
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.