Photo: Akissforme · CC BY-SA 3.0Mercedes has more property crime per resident than 89% of U.S. towns
Annual rates stand at 4.3 violent crimes and 27.8 incidents of property crime for every thousand residents, next to 4.3 and 23.6 in the rest of Texas. Overall, it grades D for safety (#428 of 471 graded towns in Texas). Per resident, the graded crimes were down 45% from 2023 to 2025.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of TX” is every other Texas 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 Mercedes
Mercedes reports less crime than every graded town next door
Of the 2 Texas towns on Mercedes’ borders, 1 have a Safety Grade: Weslaco (D). Heidelberg is an unincorporated community (a census-designated place) with no police department of its own. Neighbors ↓
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 Mercedes’ 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; violent crime is the closer of the two to typical.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Mercedes property | Rest of Texas property | Mercedes violent | Rest of Texas violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 29.0 | 27.3 | 8.0 | 5.1 |
| 2023 | 33.9 | 26.3 | 5.5 | 4.7 |
| 2024 | 32.1 | 23.9 | 4.0 | 4.4 |
| 2025 | 18.1 | 20.6 | 3.5 | 3.8 |
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 Texas.
Crime in Mercedes 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 | Mercedes | Rest of Texas | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 8.0 | 5.1 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 5.5 | 4.7 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 4.0 | 4.4 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 3.5 | 3.8 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Mercedes’ police reported 223 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 4.3 per 1,000 residents a year, against 4.3 in the rest of Texas and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
386 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.
62 violent and 324 property, as reported to the FBI by Mercedes’ police.
Six people died in crashes on Mercedes’s roads in 2019–2023
Mercedes had 6 fatal crashes in five years, in which six people died. Most of these deaths (3 of 6) 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 Texas towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (7.3 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Mercedes’s size would see about 6 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Mercedes’s own rate (7.2) 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.
Mercedes and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mercedes | D | 4.3 | 27.8 |
| Heidelberg | — | — | — |
| Weslaco | D | 3.9 | 33.6 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Heidelberg is an unincorporated community (a census-designated place) with no police department of its own.
Texas towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mercedes | D | 4.3 | 27.8 |
| Lockhart | B | 1.0 | 12.3 |
| Nederland | C+ | 2.5 | 11.6 |
| White Settlement | C− | 4.0 | 18.6 |
| Stafford | D | 4.0 | 31.7 |
| Alice | D | 5.6 | 26.9 |
The five graded Texas towns closest to Mercedes’ population (17,915), 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 Mercedes. 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 Mercedes’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (17,869 in 2025); our figure for Mercedes is 17,915 (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 Mercedes
Is Mercedes, TX safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Mercedes reports more crime per resident than 88% of U.S. towns, a D Safety Grade and #428 of 471 in Texas. Its police reported 4.3 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 4.3 in the rest of Texas and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Mercedes?
4.3 violent and 27.8 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Texas reports 4.3 and 23.6; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is Mercedes safer than Weslaco?
Weslaco reports more crime per resident than Mercedes: Weslaco grades D for safety and Mercedes D. Weslaco’s police reported 3.9 violent and 33.6 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Mercedes?
Mercedes’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Mercedes”. 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 Mercedes.
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.