Photo: Jared Kofsky/PlaceNJ.com · CC BY-SA 3.0Highlands reports less crime per resident than almost every U.S. town
On crimes reported to the FBI by Highlands’ police in 2023–2025, it grades A+ for safety: #1 of 236 graded towns in New York.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of NY” is every other New York 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
Highlands reports less crime than every graded town next door
Of the 4 New York towns on Highlands’ borders, 2 have a Safety Grade: Cornwall (A+), Stony Point (A). Philipstown and Woodbury have no FBI figures of their own for 2023–2025. Neighbors ↓
A college town
Highlands is home to United States Military Academy, with 4,508 students taking classes on campus (federal college data), and 21% of residents are enrolled in college (Census). Students who live in town count as residents, so they are part of the per-resident rate. How to read it ↓
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.
For every 1,000 residents, no property crimes reported
And no 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 York.
Show as a table
| Year | Highlands property | Rest of New York property | Highlands violent | Rest of New York violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 0.0 | 20.0 | 0.0 | 5.6 |
| 2023 | 0.0 | 22.2 | 0.0 | 5.1 |
| 2024 | 0.0 | 21.3 | 0.0 | 5.0 |
| 2025 | 0.0 | 19.7 | 0.0 | 4.9 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
0 crimes reported in 2025
0 violent and 0 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.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Highlands’ police reported 0 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 0.0 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.0 in the rest of New York and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Highlands | Rest of New York | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 0.0 | 5.6 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 0.0 | 5.1 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.0 | 5.0 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 0.0 | 4.9 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Seven people died in crashes on Highlands’s roads in 2019–2023
Highlands had 7 fatal crashes in five years, in which seven people died.
That is more than is typical for New York towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (5.9 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Highlands’s size would see about 4 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Highlands’s own rate (10.9) 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 | A+ | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Philipstown | — | — | — |
| Cornwall | A+ | 0.1 | 1.6 |
| Woodbury | — | — | — |
| Stony Point | A | 0.4 | 3.6 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Philipstown and Woodbury have no FBI figures of their own for 2023–2025.
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 (9,022 in 2025); our figure for Highlands is 12,678 (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, NY safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Highlands reports less crime per resident than 100% of U.S. towns, an A+ Safety Grade and #1 of 236 in New York. Its police reported 0.0 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.0 in the rest of New York and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Highlands?
0.0 violent and 0.0 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of New York reports 5.0 and 21.1; 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 Cornwall?
Cornwall reports more crime per resident than Highlands: Cornwall grades A+ for safety and Highlands A+. Cornwall’s police reported 0.1 violent and 1.6 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 Town”. 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.