Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 3.0For violent crime, Oak Ridge trails 74% of U.S. towns per resident
Its letter overall is C (#61 of 129 graded towns in Tennessee): more crime per resident than 66% of U.S. towns, from crimes its police reported through 2023 to 2025. Annual rates stand at 3.1 violent crimes and 13.3 incidents of property crime for every thousand residents, next to 8.2 and 30.2 in the rest of Tennessee. Add to that, the crimes the grade counts fell 19% per resident from 2023 to 2025.
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 stands out about safety in Oak Ridge
Among Tennessee towns, closer to the middle
Tennessee’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Oak Ridge’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 53% of the 129 Tennessee towns we grade, against 34% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
A job center
Oak Ridge has 40,862 jobs based in town for 35,395 residents (Census LEHD), so some reports involve people who work or shop there rather than residents. How to read it ↓
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 Oak Ridge’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. Its violent rate (3.1) 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. Its property rate (13.3) is below the FBI’s national estimate (17.6) but higher than in most individual towns: the national figure is weighted by people, and the grade counts towns.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Oak Ridge property | Rest of Tennessee property | Oak Ridge violent | Rest of Tennessee violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 17.7 | 33.7 | 3.2 | 9.1 |
| 2023 | 15.2 | 35.5 | 3.4 | 9.1 |
| 2024 | 12.8 | 30.8 | 2.9 | 8.6 |
| 2025 | 11.9 | 24.4 | 3.1 | 6.9 |
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 Tennessee.
Crime in Oak Ridge 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.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Oak Ridge | Rest of Tennessee | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 3.2 | 9.1 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 3.4 | 9.1 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 2.9 | 8.6 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 3.1 | 6.9 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Oak Ridge’s police reported 319 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 3.1 per 1,000 residents a year, against 8.2 in the rest of Tennessee and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
522 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.
108 violent and 414 property, as reported to the FBI by Oak Ridge’s police.
16 people died in crashes on Oak Ridge’s roads in 2019–2023
Oak Ridge had 15 fatal crashes in five years, in which 16 people died; 2 were pedestrians.
That is 9.8 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as the median for Tennessee towns of 25,000–100,000 people (9.6, 22 towns).
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.
Oak Ridge and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oak Ridge | C | 3.1 | 13.3 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Tennessee towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oak Ridge | C | 3.1 | 13.3 |
| Maryville | B | 1.6 | 7.1 |
| Germantown | B− | 1.3 | 12.5 |
| Cookeville | C | 2.6 | 17.3 |
| La Vergne | C− | 4.5 | 16.2 |
| Morristown | D | 6.5 | 25.2 |
The five graded Tennessee towns closest to Oak Ridge’s population (35,395), 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 Oak Ridge. 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 Oak Ridge’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (34,716 in 2025); our figure for Oak Ridge is 35,395 (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 Oak Ridge
Is Oak Ridge, TN safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Oak Ridge reports more crime per resident than 66% of U.S. towns, a C Safety Grade and #61 of 129 in Tennessee. Its police reported 3.1 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 8.2 in the rest of Tennessee and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Oak Ridge?
3.1 violent and 13.3 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Tennessee reports 8.2 and 30.2; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
How many homicides were there in Oak Ridge in 2025?
Oak Ridge’s police reported 1 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 2.9 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Who polices Oak Ridge?
Oak Ridge’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Oak Ridge”. 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 Oak Ridge.
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.