Photo: Mwanner at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Crime recorded in Saranac Lake, and why it isn’t graded
Tupper Lake, 18 miles away, is the nearest town with a Safety Grade (C). Saranac Lake’s police reported to the FBI for 2025 but not 2023 or 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 about 1 violent crime, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
The years Saranac Lake’s police reported
Show as a table
| Year | Saranac Lake | Rest of New York | Saranac Lake | Rest of New York |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | not reported | 19.9 | not reported | 5.6 |
| 2023 | not reported | 22.2 | not reported | 5.1 |
| 2024 | not reported | 21.3 | not reported | 5.0 |
| 2025 | 2.3 | 19.7 | 0.6 | 4.9 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents, against the rest of New York. A year the department didn’t report in full is a gap, not a zero.
14 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.
3 violent and 11 property, as reported to the FBI by Saranac Lake’s police.
The nearest New York towns with a Safety Grade
| Town | Grade | Distance | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tupper Lake | C | 18 mi | 1.8 | 22.4 |
| Malone | D | 37 mi | 4.7 | 24.0 |
| Plattsburgh | C+ | 42 mi | 1.5 | 17.7 |
| Potsdam | B+ | 48 mi | 0.7 | 8.4 |
| Norfolk | A+ | 53 mi | 0.4 | 0.7 |
| Canton | A | 54 mi | 0.3 | 5.7 |
Straight-line distance from the center of Saranac Lake. Nearby towns can differ a lot from Saranac Lake.
Each town’s own police figures, per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
One person died in crashes on Saranac Lake’s roads in 2019–2023
Saranac Lake had 1 fatal crash in five years, in which one person died; 1 was a cyclist.
That is about what is typical for New York towns of 2,500–5,000 people: at their median rate (6.1 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Saranac Lake’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Saranac Lake’s own rate (4.0) 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.
Saranac Lake and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Elba | — | — | — |
| St. Armand | — | — | — |
| Harrietstown | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. North Elba, St. Armand and Harrietstown have no FBI figures of their own for 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 Saranac Lake. 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 Saranac Lake’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (4,831 in 2025); our figure for Saranac Lake is 4,793 (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 Saranac Lake
Is Saranac Lake, NY safe?
There is no Safety Grade for Saranac Lake. The nearest New York towns with a grade are Tupper Lake (C, 18 mi), Malone (D, 37 mi), Plattsburgh (C+, 42 mi).
Who polices Saranac Lake?
Saranac Lake’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Saranac Lake Village”. 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 Saranac Lake.
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.