Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel · CC BY-SA 4.0Bristol records less crime per resident than 96% of U.S. towns
Its 4 neighbors with figures all record more crime per resident. Add to that, the Safety Grade comes out at A+, drawn from crimes Bristol’s police reported through 2023 to 2025: #1 of 36 graded towns in Rhode Island. Violence and property crime split as 0.3 violent crime and 2.4 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents a year, beside 1.5 and 10.2 in the rest of Rhode Island.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of RI” is every other Rhode Island 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 Bristol
Bristol reports less crime than every graded town next door
Of the 4 Rhode Island towns on Bristol’s borders, 4 have a Safety Grade: Portsmouth (A), Barrington (A), Tiverton (A−), Warren (B). Neighbors ↓
A college town
Bristol is home to Roger Williams University, with 4,074 students taking classes on campus (federal college data), and 19% 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 Bristol’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; property crime is the stronger of the two.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Bristol | Rest of Rhode Island | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 0.5 | 1.7 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Bristol’s police reported 20 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 0.3 per 1,000 residents a year, against 1.5 in the rest of Rhode Island and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Bristol 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 | Bristol property | Rest of Rhode Island property | Bristol violent | Rest of Rhode Island violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 3.0 | 12.9 | 0.5 | 1.7 |
| 2023 | 2.5 | 11.2 | 0.2 | 1.6 |
| 2024 | 2.2 | 10.3 | 0.3 | 1.5 |
| 2025 | 2.5 | 9.0 | 0.5 | 1.5 |
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 Rhode Island.
64 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.
10 violent and 54 property, as reported to the FBI by Bristol’s police.
No one died in a crash on Bristol’s roads in 2019–2023
That is fewer than is typical for Rhode Island towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (4.8 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Bristol’s size would see about 5 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Bristol’s own rate (0.0) 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.
Bristol and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bristol | A+ | 0.3 | 2.4 |
| Portsmouth | A | 0.5 | 3.1 |
| Warren | B | 1.5 | 7.5 |
| Tiverton | A− | 0.9 | 6.4 |
| Barrington | A | 0.4 | 5.2 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Rhode Island towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bristol | A+ | 0.3 | 2.4 |
| Smithfield | A− | 0.5 | 8.2 |
| Westerly | B+ | 0.6 | 8.6 |
| Lincoln | B | 0.8 | 10.4 |
| Newport | C+ | 1.9 | 14.5 |
| Central Falls | C+ | 3.4 | 9.1 |
The five graded Rhode Island towns closest to Bristol’s population (21,970), 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 Bristol. 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 Bristol’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (21,874 in 2025); our figure for Bristol is 21,970 (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 Bristol
Is Bristol, RI safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Bristol reports less crime per resident than 96% of U.S. towns, an A+ Safety Grade and #1 of 36 in Rhode Island. Its police reported 0.3 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 1.5 in the rest of Rhode Island and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Bristol?
0.3 violent and 2.4 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Rhode Island reports 1.5 and 10.2; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is Bristol safer than Portsmouth?
Portsmouth reports more crime per resident than Bristol: Portsmouth grades A for safety and Bristol A+. Portsmouth’s police reported 0.5 violent and 3.1 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Bristol?
Bristol’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Bristol”. 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 Bristol.
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.