Bolivar Court Square Historic District · Photo: RealElectrical · CC BY-SA 3.0Few U.S. towns record more crime per resident than Bolivar
Graded on crimes Bolivar’s police reported from 2023 to 2025, it scores D− for safety: #127 of 129 graded towns in Tennessee. On top of that, the yearly rates were 16.9 violent crimes and 23.7 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents, set against 8.1 and 30.1 in the rest of Tennessee. It has more violent crime than 100% of U.S. towns, and more property crime than 83%.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of TN” is every other Tennessee 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’s behind Bolivar’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 higher than in most U.S. towns; property crime is the closer of the two to typical.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Bolivar | Rest of Tennessee | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 19.1 | 9.1 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 21.0 | 9.1 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 12.7 | 8.5 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 17.0 | 6.9 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Bolivar’s police reported 260 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 16.9 per 1,000 residents a year, against 8.1 in the rest of Tennessee and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Bolivar 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 17 violent crimes, 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 | Bolivar property | Rest of Tennessee property | Bolivar violent | Rest of Tennessee violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 17.2 | 33.6 | 19.1 | 9.1 |
| 2023 | 21.0 | 35.4 | 21.0 | 9.1 |
| 2024 | 24.8 | 30.6 | 12.7 | 8.5 |
| 2025 | 25.3 | 24.3 | 17.0 | 6.9 |
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 Tennessee.
214 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.
86 violent and 128 property, as reported to the FBI by Bolivar’s police.
One person died in crashes on Bolivar’s roads in 2019–2023
Bolivar had 1 fatal crash in five years, in which one person died.
That is about what is typical for Tennessee towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (9.4 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Bolivar’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Bolivar’s own rate (3.9) 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.
Bolivar and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bolivar | D− | 16.9 | 23.7 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Tennessee towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bolivar | D− | 16.9 | 23.7 |
| Mount Pleasant | C | 4.8 | 9.6 |
| Sparta | C | 1.9 | 23.2 |
| Rogersville | C | 2.7 | 20.3 |
| Madisonville | C− | 3.3 | 22.0 |
| Selmer | D | 7.4 | 20.9 |
The five graded Tennessee towns closest to Bolivar’s population (5,043), 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 Bolivar. 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 Bolivar’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (5,058 in 2025); our figure for Bolivar is 5,043 (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 Bolivar
Is Bolivar, TN safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Bolivar reports more crime per resident than 99% of U.S. towns, a D− Safety Grade and #127 of 129 in Tennessee. Its police reported 16.9 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 8.1 in the rest of Tennessee and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Bolivar?
16.9 violent and 23.7 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Tennessee reports 8.1 and 30.1; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Bolivar?
Bolivar’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Bolivar”. 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 Bolivar.
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.