Jenkins Lutheran Chapel and Cemetery · Photo: Wpcooper52 · CC BY-SA 3.0For violent crime, Shelbyville trails 86% of U.S. towns per resident
Taking everything together, Shelbyville scores C− (#87 of 129 graded towns in Tennessee): more crime per resident than 80% of U.S. towns, measured on crimes its police reported between 2023 and 2025. Still, the rate the grade counts dropped 32% from 2023 to 2025. Per 1,000 residents a year, 4.6 violent crimes and 17.9 incidents of property crime were recorded, against 8.2 and 30.1 in the rest of Tennessee.
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 Shelbyville
Among Tennessee towns, closer to the middle
Tennessee’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Shelbyville’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 33% of the 129 Tennessee towns we grade, against 20% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
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 Shelbyville’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.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Shelbyville property | Rest of Tennessee property | Shelbyville violent | Rest of Tennessee violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 20.0 | 33.6 | 5.6 | 9.1 |
| 2023 | 21.1 | 35.5 | 5.3 | 9.1 |
| 2024 | 19.1 | 30.7 | 4.3 | 8.5 |
| 2025 | 13.7 | 24.4 | 4.1 | 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 Shelbyville 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 4 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 | Shelbyville | Rest of Tennessee | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 5.6 | 9.1 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 5.3 | 9.1 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 4.3 | 8.5 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 4.1 | 6.9 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Shelbyville’s police reported 352 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 4.6 per 1,000 residents a year, against 8.2 in the rest of Tennessee and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
471 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.
109 violent and 362 property, as reported to the FBI by Shelbyville’s police.
Six people died in crashes on Shelbyville’s roads in 2019–2023
Shelbyville had 6 fatal crashes in five years, in which six people 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 Shelbyville’s size would see about 12 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Shelbyville’s own rate (4.9) 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.
Shelbyville and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shelbyville | C− | 4.6 | 17.9 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Tennessee towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shelbyville | C− | 4.6 | 17.9 |
| Maryville | B | 1.6 | 7.1 |
| Tullahoma | C− | 3.9 | 17.1 |
| Bristol | C− | 3.8 | 22.0 |
| East Ridge | C− | 4.6 | 18.6 |
| Morristown | D | 6.5 | 25.2 |
The five graded Tennessee towns closest to Shelbyville’s population (26,146), 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 Shelbyville. 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 Shelbyville’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (26,357 in 2025); our figure for Shelbyville is 26,146 (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 Shelbyville
Is Shelbyville, TN safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Shelbyville reports more crime per resident than 80% of U.S. towns, a C− Safety Grade and #87 of 129 in Tennessee. Its police reported 4.6 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 Shelbyville?
4.6 violent and 17.9 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.
How many homicides were there in Shelbyville in 2025?
Shelbyville’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.
Who polices Shelbyville?
Shelbyville’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Shelbyville”. 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 Shelbyville.
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.