Photo: Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD · CC BY-SA 3.0What is recorded in Mountain Lakes, and why there is no grade
Nearby, 24 communities within 10 miles carry a Safety Grade. The nearest town with a Safety Grade is Parsippany-Troy Hills Township, 2 miles away, graded B+. Mountain Lakes’ police reported to the FBI for 2023 and 2025 but not 2024, so there is no Safety Grade: the grade needs all three years, 2023–2025.
For every 1,000 residents, about 2 property crimes reported
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.
The years Mountain Lakes’ police reported
Show as a table
| Year | Mountain Lakes | Rest of New Jersey | Mountain Lakes | Rest of New Jersey |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | not reported | 13.9 | not reported | 1.9 |
| 2023 | 5.3 | 14.8 | 0.2 | 2.2 |
| 2024 | not reported | 14.0 | not reported | 2.2 |
| 2025 | 1.9 | 12.6 | 0.4 | 2.0 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents, against the rest of New Jersey. A year the department didn’t report in full is a gap, not a zero.
11 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.
2 violent and 9 property, as reported to the FBI by Mountain Lakes’ police.
The nearest New Jersey towns with a Safety Grade
| Town | Grade | Distance | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parsippany-Troy Hills Township | B+ | 2 mi | 0.5 | 8.4 |
| Denville Township | A+ | 2 mi | 0.1 | 3.3 |
| Boonton | B+ | 3 mi | 0.4 | 8.3 |
| Boonton Township | A+ | 3 mi | 0.2 | 2.7 |
| Morris Plains | B+ | 4 mi | 0.2 | 10.6 |
| Rockaway | A+ | 4 mi | 0.1 | 3.3 |
Straight-line distance from the center of Mountain Lakes. Nearby towns can differ a lot from Mountain Lakes.
Each town’s own police figures, per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Two people died in crashes on Mountain Lakes’s roads in 2019–2023
Mountain Lakes had 2 fatal crashes in five years, in which two people died; 1 was a pedestrian and 1 was a cyclist.
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 Mountain Lakes’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Mountain Lakes’s own rate (8.7) 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.
Mountain Lakes and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parsippany-Troy Hills Township | B+ | 0.5 | 8.4 |
| Boonton | B+ | 0.4 | 8.3 |
| Boonton Township | A+ | 0.2 | 2.7 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
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 Mountain Lakes. 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 Mountain Lakes’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (4,685 in 2025); our figure for Mountain Lakes is 4,649 (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 Mountain Lakes
Is Mountain Lakes, NJ safe?
There is no Safety Grade for Mountain Lakes. The nearest New Jersey towns with a grade are Parsippany-Troy Hills Township (B+, 2 mi), Denville Township (A+, 2 mi), Boonton (B+, 3 mi).
Who polices Mountain Lakes?
Mountain Lakes’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Mountain Lakes”. 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 Mountain Lakes.
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.