Photo: Paulo Ordoveza from Washington, DC · CC BY 2.0Derry Township sees less violent crime per resident than 64% of U.S. towns
Among its 4 neighbors with figures, 2 record less crime per resident. Scored on crimes Derry Township’s police reported across 2023 to 2025, the town lands on B for safety: #353 of 578 graded towns in Pennsylvania. On top of that, the local count comes to 1.1 violent crimes and 9.2 incidents of property crime per 1,000 people each year, with 2.9 and 17.5 in the rest of Pennsylvania.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of PA” is every other Pennsylvania 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 Derry Township
2 of the 4 graded towns next door report less crime
Of the 8 Pennsylvania towns on Derry Township’s borders, 4 have a Safety Grade: Lower Swatara Township (A−), North Londonderry Township (A−), Hummelstown (B−), Swatara Township (C). East Hanover Township, South Hanover Township and Conewago Township have no FBI figures of their own for 2023–2025. Palmyra reported to the FBI for 2023 but not 2024 or 2025. Neighbors ↓
Among Pennsylvania towns, closer to the middle
Pennsylvania’s cities and towns report less crime than most states’, so Derry Township’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 39% of the 578 Pennsylvania towns we grade, against 62% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
A job center
Derry Township has 35,814 jobs based in town for 25,179 residents (Census LEHD), so some reports involve people who work or shop there rather than residents. How to read it ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Derry Township’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.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Derry Township | Rest of Pennsylvania | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.3 | 7.0 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 1.5 | 3.2 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.9 | 2.9 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.0 | 2.7 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Derry Township’s police reported 86 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.1 per 1,000 residents a year, against 2.9 in the rest of Pennsylvania and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Derry Township 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.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | Derry Township property | Rest of Pennsylvania property | Derry Township violent | Rest of Pennsylvania violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 10.2 | 30.4 | 1.3 | 7.0 |
| 2023 | 8.7 | 19.1 | 1.5 | 3.2 |
| 2024 | 11.0 | 17.4 | 0.9 | 2.9 |
| 2025 | 8.1 | 16.1 | 1.0 | 2.7 |
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 Pennsylvania.
231 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.
26 violent and 205 property, as reported to the FBI by Derry Township’s police.
Three people died in crashes on Derry Township’s roads in 2019–2023
Derry Township had 3 fatal crashes in five years, in which three people died; 1 was a pedestrian.
That is about what is typical for Pennsylvania towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (5.8 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Derry Township’s size would see about 7 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Derry Township’s own rate (2.4) 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.
Derry Township and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Derry Township | B | 1.1 | 9.2 |
| East Hanover Township | — | — | — |
| South Hanover Township | — | — | — |
| Lower Swatara Township | A− | 1.5 | 3.0 |
| Swatara Township | C | 1.6 | 25.1 |
| Hummelstown | B− | 3.2 | 6.3 |
| North Londonderry Township | A− | 0.5 | 7.9 |
| Palmyra | — | — | — |
| Conewago Township | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. East Hanover Township, South Hanover Township and Conewago Township have no FBI figures of their own for 2023–2025. Palmyra reported to the FBI for 2023 but not 2024 or 2025.
Pennsylvania towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Derry Township | B | 1.1 | 9.2 |
| Upper Allen Township | A | 0.7 | 3.4 |
| Marple Township | B+ | 0.4 | 9.6 |
| Upper Providence Township | B+ | 0.5 | 11.1 |
| Upper Moreland Township | C+ | 1.4 | 19.4 |
| Springfield Township | C | 0.7 | 26.2 |
The five graded Pennsylvania towns closest to Derry Township’s population (25,179), 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 Derry Township. 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 Derry Township’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (25,296 in 2025); our figure for Derry Township is 25,179 (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 Derry Township
Is Derry Township, PA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Derry Township reports less crime per resident than 62% of U.S. towns, a B Safety Grade and #353 of 578 in Pennsylvania. Its police reported 1.1 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 2.9 in the rest of Pennsylvania and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Derry Township?
1.1 violent and 9.2 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Pennsylvania reports 2.9 and 17.5; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
How many homicides were there in Derry Township in 2025?
Derry Township’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.
Is Derry Township safer than Lower Swatara Township?
Lower Swatara Township reports less crime per resident than Derry Township: Lower Swatara Township grades A− for safety and Derry Township B. Lower Swatara Township’s police reported 1.5 violent and 3.0 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Derry Township?
Derry Township’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Derry Township, Dauphin County”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Neighbors looking out for each other in Derry Township.
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.