Photo: Nicolas Henderson from Coppell, Texas · CC BY 2.0On property crime, Sour Lake has a lower rate per resident than three in four U.S. towns
Overall, it grades B+ for safety. The local count comes to 1.6 violent crimes and 5.6 incidents of property crime per 1,000 people each year, with 4.3 and 23.6 in the rest of Texas.
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’s behind Sour Lake’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 lower than in most U.S. towns; property crime is the stronger of the two.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Sour Lake | Rest of Texas | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 0.0 | 5.1 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 1.6 | 4.7 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 2.1 | 4.4 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.1 | 3.8 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Sour Lake’s police reported 9 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.6 per 1,000 residents a year, against 4.3 in the rest of Texas and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Sour Lake 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 1 violent crime, 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 | Sour Lake property | Rest of Texas property | Sour Lake violent | Rest of Texas violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 13.3 | 27.3 | 0.0 | 5.1 |
| 2023 | 5.4 | 26.3 | 1.6 | 4.7 |
| 2024 | 5.9 | 23.9 | 2.1 | 4.4 |
| 2025 | 5.4 | 20.6 | 1.1 | 3.8 |
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 Texas.
12 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.
2 violent and 10 property, as reported to the FBI by Sour Lake’s police.
Three people died in crashes on Sour Lake’s roads in 2019–2023
Sour Lake had 2 fatal crashes in five years, in which three people died.
That is about what is typical for Texas towns of 2,500–5,000 people: at their median rate (5.8 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Sour Lake’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Sour Lake’s own rate (28.2) 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.
Sour Lake and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sour Lake | B+ | 1.6 | 5.6 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Texas towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sour Lake | B+ | 1.6 | 5.6 |
| Honey Grove | A− | 0.9 | 4.8 |
| Somerset | A− | 1.3 | 4.9 |
| San Augustine | B− | 3.4 | 5.9 |
| Lorena | B− | 2.4 | 11.1 |
| Beverly Hills | D | 8.3 | 27.8 |
The five graded Texas towns closest to Sour Lake’s population (1,841), 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 Sour Lake. 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 Sour Lake’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (1,862 in 2025); our figure for Sour Lake is 1,841 (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 Sour Lake
Is Sour Lake, TX safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Sour Lake reports less crime per resident than 68% of U.S. towns, a B+ Safety Grade. Its police reported 1.6 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 Sour Lake?
1.6 violent and 5.6 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.
Who polices Sour Lake?
Sour Lake’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Sour Lake”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
Neighbors looking out for each other in Sour Lake.
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.