Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Adams

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
Adams Wisconsin Downtown looking north on WIS13Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 3.0
C−
Safety in Adams · FBI data, 2023–2025

Adams reports more crime per resident than 79% of U.S. towns

On crimes reported to the FBI by Adams’ police in 2023–2025, it grades C− for safety.

Violent crime
3.6
per 1,000 a year · Close to rest of WI (3.6)
U.S. (FBI national estimate) 3.6
Property crime
21.0
per 1,000 a year · Above rest of WI (15.0)
U.S. (FBI national estimate) 17.6
Crimes reported
131
19 violent · 112 property
2023–2025
Trend
→ Steady
2023 to 2025
within ordinary swings

Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of WI” is every other Wisconsin 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.

Safety Grade

What’s behind Adams’ 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 (3.6) 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.

Where Adams sits
C− Violent 3.6C− Property 21.0
All U.S. towns we grade (7,426)Less crime than 21%
More reported crimeLess reported crime
Places of 1,000–5,000 people (2,448)Less crime than 14%
A fairly firm grade. Built on 131 reported crimes over three years. Ordinary swings could put Adams anywhere from C− to C.

How TownRatings grades safety →

1,000 neighbors · one year

For every 1,000 residents, about 21 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.

Property crime (20.9)Violent crime (1.1)Everyone else

Violent crime per 1,000 residents, 2025

Adams1.1
Rest of WI3.2
U.S. (FBI)3.3

Property crime per 1,000 residents, 2025

Adams20.9
Rest of WI13.5
U.S. (FBI)15.5

Crimes reported to police in 2025 per resident; one person can be the victim of more than one, and some reports involve visitors.

Violent crime

Violent crime, by year and by type

Adams’ police reported 19 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 3.6 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.6 in the rest of Wisconsin and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.

Trend

Reported crime is steady

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 Wisconsin.

Show as a table
YearAdams propertyRest of Wisconsin propertyAdams violentRest of Wisconsin violent
202233.818.23.44.0
202323.016.03.43.9
202419.015.46.23.8
202520.913.51.13.2

Crimes per 1,000 residents

What gets reported

39 crimes reported in 2025

2 violent and 37 property, as reported to the FBI by Adams’ police.

2025 offenses reported

Larceny / theft32
Burglary4
Vehicle theft1
Aggravated assault0
Robbery0
Rape2
Homicide0
Arson0
2
violent crimes
37
property crimes

Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.

On the roads

No one died in a crash on Adams’s roads in 2019–2023

That is about what is typical for Wisconsin towns of 2,500–5,000 people: at their median rate (6.8 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Adams’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Adams’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.

0
people died in crashes, 2019–2023
0
pedestrians among them
0
cyclists among them
0.0
per 100,000 a year · Wisconsin towns of 2,500–5,000: 6.8

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.

Next door

Adams and its neighbors

How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.

Adams
A rangeB rangeC rangeD rangeNot graded
TownGradeViolentProperty
AdamsC−3.621.0

Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.

Wisconsin towns of a similar size

TownGradeViolentProperty
AdamsC−3.621.0
SharonA+0.41.7
NiagaraA1.31.7
PhillipsC4.67.3
Shorewood HillsC2.217.8
ButlerC1.323.6

The five graded Wisconsin towns closest to Adams’ population (1,803), by grade.

How to read these numbers

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 Adams. 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 Adams’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
  • Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (1,773 in 2025); our figure for Adams is 1,803 (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 Adams

Is Adams, WI safe?

On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Adams reports more crime per resident than 79% of U.S. towns, a C− Safety Grade. Its police reported 3.6 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.6 in the rest of Wisconsin and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.

What is the crime rate in Adams?

3.6 violent and 21.0 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Wisconsin reports 3.6 and 15.0; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.

Is crime going up or down in Adams?

Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings.

Who polices Adams?

Adams’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Adams”. Its figures are the ones on this page.

Heads-up board

Neighbors looking out for each other in Adams.

Town Square →
Weigh in
Does Adams feel safe walking around at night?

Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.

Post a heads-up

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.