Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 3.0Rocky Top has more crime per resident than 98% of U.S. towns
It has more violent crime than 99% of U.S. towns, and more property crime than 96%. Add to that, that puts it at D− for safety, judged on crimes Rocky Top’s police reported from 2023 to 2025. Police counts work out at 11.7 violent crimes and 41.1 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents annually; in the rest of Tennessee they are 8.2 and 30.1.
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 Rocky Top’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 | Rocky Top | Rest of Tennessee | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 3.9 | 9.1 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 7.4 | 9.1 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 15.2 | 8.5 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 12.6 | 6.9 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Rocky Top’s police reported 58 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 11.7 per 1,000 residents a year, against 8.2 in the rest of Tennessee and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Rocky Top 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 13 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 | Rocky Top property | Rest of Tennessee property | Rocky Top violent | Rest of Tennessee violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 18.4 | 33.6 | 3.9 | 9.1 |
| 2023 | 50.3 | 35.4 | 7.4 | 9.1 |
| 2024 | 35.9 | 30.6 | 15.2 | 8.5 |
| 2025 | 37.1 | 24.3 | 12.6 | 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.
83 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.
21 violent and 62 property, as reported to the FBI by Rocky Top’s police.
Three people died in crashes on Rocky Top’s roads in 2019–2023
Rocky Top had 2 fatal crashes in five years, in which three people died. Most of these deaths (2 of 3) were on an Interstate passing through, so they say more about through-traffic than about the town’s own streets.
That is about what is typical for Tennessee towns of 2,500–5,000 people: at their median rate (12.4 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Rocky Top’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Rocky Top’s own rate (37.3) 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.
Rocky Top and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rocky Top | D− | 11.7 | 41.1 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Tennessee towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rocky Top | D− | 11.7 | 41.1 |
| Watertown | B | 1.8 | 8.2 |
| McEwen | B− | 3.2 | 7.1 |
| Kimball | C | 0.4 | 29.9 |
| Vonore | C− | 4.0 | 19.8 |
| Decatur | C− | 3.3 | 24.6 |
The five graded Tennessee towns closest to Rocky Top’s population (1,681), 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 Rocky Top. 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 Rocky Top’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (1,673 in 2025); our figure for Rocky Top is 1,681 (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 Rocky Top
Is Rocky Top, TN safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Rocky Top reports more crime per resident than 98% of U.S. towns, a D− Safety Grade. Its police reported 11.7 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 Rocky Top?
11.7 violent and 41.1 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Tennessee reports 8.2 and 30.1; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Rocky Top?
Rocky Top’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Rocky Top”. 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 Rocky Top.
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.