Photo: Mr. Matté (if there is an issue with this image, contact me using this image's Commons talk page, my Commons user talk page, or my English Wikipedia user talk page; I'll know about it a lot faster) · CC BY-SA 4.0Surf City: recorded crime, not graded
Long Beach Township itself is graded B−, and no other graded town is as close. Surf City’s police reported to the FBI for 2023 and 2024 but not 2025, so there is no Safety Grade: the grade needs all three years, 2023–2025.
For every 1,000 residents, about 8 property crimes reported
Violent crime per 1,000 residents, 2024
Property crime per 1,000 residents, 2024
Crimes reported to police in 2024 per resident; one person can be the victim of more than one, and some reports involve visitors.
And about 1 violent crime, in 2024. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
The years Surf City’s police reported
Show as a table
| Year | Surf City | Rest of New Jersey | Surf City | Rest of New Jersey |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 7.7 | 13.9 | 0.8 | 1.9 |
| 2023 | 9.2 | 14.8 | 0.8 | 2.2 |
| 2024 | 8.3 | 14.0 | 0.8 | 2.2 |
| 2025 | not reported | 12.6 | not reported | 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.
12 crimes reported in 2024
2024 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
1 violent and 11 property, as reported to the FBI by Surf City’s police.
The nearest New Jersey towns with a Safety Grade
| Town | Grade | Distance | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long Beach Township | B− | 5 mi | 1.3 | 13.3 |
| Stafford Township | B+ | 6 mi | 0.5 | 8.4 |
| Little Egg Harbor Township | B+ | 9 mi | 0.6 | 8.5 |
| Ocean Township | A+ | 9 mi | 0.2 | 2.6 |
| Barnegat Township | A | 9 mi | 0.9 | 2.2 |
| Lacey Township | B+ | 14 mi | 0.8 | 8.2 |
Straight-line distance from the center of Surf City. Nearby towns can differ a lot from Surf City.
Each town’s own police figures, per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
No one died in a crash on Surf City’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 Surf City’s size would see about 0 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Surf City’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.
Surf City and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stafford Township | B+ | 0.5 | 8.4 |
| Long Beach Township | B− | 1.3 | 13.3 |
| Ship Bottom | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Ship Bottom reported to the FBI for 2023 and 2025 but not 2024.
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 Surf City. 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 Surf City’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (1,333 in 2024); our figure for Surf City is 1,305 (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 Surf City
Is Surf City, NJ safe?
There is no Safety Grade for Surf City. The nearest New Jersey towns with a grade are Long Beach Township (B−, 5 mi), Stafford Township (B+, 6 mi), Little Egg Harbor Township (B+, 9 mi).
Who polices Surf City?
Surf City’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Surf City”. 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 Surf City.
Crime: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Crime Data Explorer: offenses known to law enforcement by city, 2024, 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.