First National Bank of Eddy · Photo: MRobison · CC BY-SA 3.0Carlsbad reports more crime per resident than 90% of U.S. towns
On crimes reported to the FBI by Carlsbad’s police in 2023–2025, it grades D for safety: #18 of 29 graded towns in New Mexico.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of NM” is every other New Mexico 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 Carlsbad
Among New Mexico towns, closer to the middle
New Mexico’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Carlsbad’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 38% of the 29 New Mexico towns we grade, against 10% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Carlsbad’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 27 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
Carlsbad’s police reported 523 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 5.5 per 1,000 residents a year, against 8.5 in the rest of New Mexico and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Carlsbad | Rest of New Mexico | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 5.6 | 9.8 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 5.6 | 9.5 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 5.2 | 8.7 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 5.8 | 7.2 | 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 New Mexico.
Show as a table
| Year | Carlsbad property | Rest of New Mexico property | Carlsbad violent | Rest of New Mexico violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 28.4 | 38.8 | 5.6 | 9.8 |
| 2023 | 25.8 | 38.3 | 5.6 | 9.5 |
| 2024 | 27.9 | 36.6 | 5.2 | 8.7 |
| 2025 | 27.0 | 29.2 | 5.8 | 7.2 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
1,046 crimes reported in 2025
184 violent and 862 property, as reported to the FBI by Carlsbad’s police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
18 people died in crashes on Carlsbad’s roads in 2019–2023
Carlsbad had 16 fatal crashes in five years, in which 18 people died; 5 were pedestrians and 1 was a cyclist.
That is 11.3 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for New Mexico towns of 25,000–100,000 people (9.8, 8 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.
Carlsbad and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. La Huerta is an unincorporated community (a census-designated place) with no police department of its own.
New Mexico towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carlsbad | D | 5.5 | 26.9 |
| Alamogordo | C− | 3.9 | 25.2 |
| Los Lunas | D | 5.6 | 26.4 |
| Roswell | D | 8.1 | 25.7 |
| Farmington | D | 10.2 | 25.0 |
| Hobbs | D− | 7.9 | 39.0 |
The five graded New Mexico towns closest to Carlsbad’s population (32,524), 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 Carlsbad. 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 Carlsbad’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (31,936 in 2025); our figure for Carlsbad is 32,524 (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 Carlsbad
Is Carlsbad, NM safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Carlsbad reports more crime per resident than 90% of U.S. towns, a D Safety Grade and #18 of 29 in New Mexico. Its police reported 5.5 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 8.5 in the rest of New Mexico and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Carlsbad?
5.5 violent and 26.9 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of New Mexico reports 8.5 and 34.6; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is crime going up or down in Carlsbad?
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 Carlsbad in 2025?
Carlsbad’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.
Who polices Carlsbad?
Carlsbad’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Carlsbad”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Carlsbad.
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.