Cox-Williams House · Photo: Ian Poellet (User:Werewombat) · CC BY-SA 3.0More violent crime is recorded per resident in St. Helens than in 70% of U.S. towns
Overall, St. Helens grades C+ for safety (#23 of 74 graded towns in Oregon): close to the middle of U.S. towns, on crimes its police reported from 2023 to 2025. Per 1,000 residents a year, 2.9 violent crimes and 9.7 incidents of property crime were recorded, against 3.8 and 30.5 in the rest of Oregon. The crimes the grade counts held steady per resident from 2023 to 2025.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of OR” is every other Oregon 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 St. Helens
Among Oregon towns, closer to the middle
Oregon’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so St. Helens’ place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 69% of the 74 Oregon towns we grade, against 44% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind St. Helens’ grade
Property crimes plus four times violent crimes reported to the FBI per resident, 2023–2025, on a national curve. Property crime holds St. Helens’ grade up; violent crime pulls it down. Its violent rate (2.9) is below the FBI’s national estimate (3.6) but higher than in most individual towns: the national figure is weighted by people, and the grade counts towns.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | St. Helens | Rest of Oregon | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2.8 | 4.1 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 2.9 | 3.9 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 2.7 | 4.0 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 2.9 | 3.7 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
St. Helens’ police reported 125 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 2.9 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.8 in the rest of Oregon and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in St. Helens 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 3 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
How crime in St. Helens has moved
Show as a table
| Year | St. Helens property | Rest of Oregon property | St. Helens violent | Rest of Oregon violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 11.4 | 36.6 | 2.8 | 4.1 |
| 2023 | 10.3 | 33.0 | 2.9 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 9.2 | 31.0 | 2.7 | 4.0 |
| 2025 | 9.7 | 27.5 | 2.9 | 3.7 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
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 Oregon.
184 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. 2025 figures come from FBI Crime Data Explorer, which publishes violent crime, homicides, robberies and property crime only.
42 violent and 142 property, as reported to the FBI by St. Helens’ police.
Three people died in crashes on St. Helens’s roads in 2019–2023
St. Helens had 3 fatal crashes in five years, in which three people died; 1 was a pedestrian.
That is about what is typical for Oregon towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (3.5 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of St. Helens’s size would see about 3 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so St. Helens’s own rate (4.2) 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.
St. Helens and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Helens | C+ | 2.9 | 9.7 |
| Columbia City | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Columbia City reported to the FBI for 2023 and 2024 but not 2025.
Oregon towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Helens | C+ | 2.9 | 9.7 |
| Sandy | B | 0.8 | 13.1 |
| Cornelius | C+ | 2.7 | 14.1 |
| La Grande | C− | 3.3 | 22.6 |
| The Dalles | C− | 3.3 | 28.2 |
| Coos Bay | D− | 7.0 | 45.7 |
The five graded Oregon towns closest to St. Helens’ population (14,450), 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 St. Helens. 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 St. Helens’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (14,602 in 2025); our figure for St. Helens is 14,450 (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 St. Helens
Is St. Helens, OR safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, St. Helens reports more crime per resident than 56% of U.S. towns, a C+ Safety Grade and #23 of 74 in Oregon. Its police reported 2.9 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.8 in the rest of Oregon and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in St. Helens?
2.9 violent and 9.7 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Oregon reports 3.8 and 30.5; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices St. Helens?
St. Helens’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “St. Helens Police Department”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Neighbors looking out for each other in St. Helens.
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.