Photo: 636Buster · CC BY-SA 4.0In East Palestine, the kinds of crime the grade counts fell 47% per resident from 2023 to 2025
Recorded violent crimes ran at 1.4 per 1,000 residents a year and property crime at 11.1, against 3.7 and 19.6 in the rest of Ohio. Across all the graded crimes, East Palestine lands on B (#147 of 296 graded towns in Ohio): close to the middle of U.S. towns, on crimes its police reported from 2023 to 2025.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of OH” is every other Ohio 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 East Palestine
Reported crime is falling
Crime reported per resident fell from 2023 to 2025 by more than ordinary year-to-year swings, on the grade’s own score. Trend ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind East Palestine’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 lower than in most U.S. towns; violent crime is the stronger of the two.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | East Palestine property | Rest of Ohio property | East Palestine violent | Rest of Ohio violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 11.9 | 22.6 | 0.6 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 14.0 | 21.1 | 1.9 | 3.7 |
| 2024 | 12.1 | 19.8 | 0.9 | 3.9 |
| 2025 | 7.1 | 17.9 | 1.3 | 3.5 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2022–2025, against the rest of Ohio.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | East Palestine | Rest of Ohio | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 0.6 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 1.9 | 3.7 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.9 | 3.9 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.3 | 3.5 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
East Palestine’s police reported 19 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.4 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.7 in the rest of Ohio and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in East Palestine per 1,000 residents
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.
39 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.
6 violent and 33 property, as reported to the FBI by East Palestine’s police.
One person died in crashes on East Palestine’s roads in 2019–2023
East Palestine had 1 fatal crash in five years, in which one person died; 1 was a pedestrian.
That is about what is typical for Ohio towns of 2,500–5,000 people: at their median rate (9.6 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of East Palestine’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so East Palestine’s own rate (4.3) 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.
East Palestine and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| East Palestine | B | 1.4 | 11.1 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Ohio towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| East Palestine | B | 1.4 | 11.1 |
| Ottawa | A | 0.9 | 3.2 |
| Ottawa Hills | A− | 0.2 | 6.5 |
| Mount Orab | B+ | 1.5 | 6.3 |
| Georgetown | B− | 1.7 | 10.7 |
| Nelsonville | C | 2.4 | 20.6 |
The five graded Ohio towns closest to East Palestine’s population (4,613), by grade.
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 East Palestine. 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 East Palestine’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (4,617 in 2025); our figure for East Palestine is 4,613 (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 East Palestine
Is East Palestine, OH safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, East Palestine reports less crime per resident than 55% of U.S. towns, a B Safety Grade and #147 of 296 in Ohio. Its police reported 1.4 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.7 in the rest of Ohio and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in East Palestine?
1.4 violent and 11.1 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Ohio reports 3.7 and 19.6; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices East Palestine?
East Palestine’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “East Palestine”. 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 East Palestine.
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.