Photo: Ian Poellet (User:Werewombat) · CC BY-SA 3.0Reported crime per resident in Kelso fell 57% from 2023 to 2025
Overall, Kelso grades C for safety (#76 of 130 graded towns in Washington): more crime per resident than 74% of U.S. towns, on crimes its police reported to the FBI in 2023–2025.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of WA” is every other Washington 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 Kelso
Kelso reports less crime than every graded town next door
Of the 1 Washington towns on Kelso’s borders, 1 have a Safety Grade: Longview (C−). Neighbors ↓
Among Washington towns, closer to the middle
Washington’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Kelso’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 42% of the 130 Washington towns we grade, against 26% 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 Kelso’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; violent crime is the closer of the two to typical. Its violent rate (2.1) 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.
Reported crime is falling
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 Washington.
Show as a table
| Year | Kelso property | Rest of Washington property | Kelso violent | Rest of Washington violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 46.7 | 43.6 | 4.1 | 4.8 |
| 2023 | 34.5 | 37.5 | 2.8 | 4.5 |
| 2024 | 19.3 | 32.9 | 2.3 | 4.1 |
| 2025 | 15.0 | 25.8 | 1.2 | 3.6 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Violent crime, by year and by type
Kelso’s police reported 79 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 2.1 per 1,000 residents a year, against 4.0 in the rest of Washington and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Kelso | Rest of Washington | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 4.1 | 4.8 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 2.8 | 4.5 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 2.3 | 4.1 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.2 | 3.6 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
For every 1,000 residents, about 15 property crimes reported
And about 1 violent crime, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
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.
206 crimes reported in 2025
15 violent and 191 property, as reported to the FBI by Kelso’s police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
Four people died in crashes on Kelso’s roads in 2019–2023
Kelso had 4 fatal crashes in five years, in which four people died. Most of these deaths (2 of 4) 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 Washington towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (3.7 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Kelso’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Kelso’s own rate (6.3) 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.
Kelso and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
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 Kelso. 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 Kelso’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (12,738 in 2025); our figure for Kelso is 12,801 (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 Kelso
Is Kelso, WA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Kelso reports more crime per resident than 74% of U.S. towns, a C Safety Grade and #76 of 130 in Washington. Its police reported 2.1 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 4.0 in the rest of Washington and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Kelso?
2.1 violent and 22.9 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Washington reports 4.0 and 32.1; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is crime going up or down in Kelso?
Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings.
Is Kelso safer than Longview?
Longview reports more crime per resident than Kelso: Longview grades C− for safety and Kelso C. Longview’s police reported 2.6 violent and 31.1 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Kelso?
Kelso’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Kelso”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Kelso.
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
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.