Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 3.0In West Salem, the kinds of crime the grade counts fell 44% per resident from 2023 to 2025
West Salem’s overall Safety Grade is B (#93 of 175 graded towns in Wisconsin): less crime per resident than 60% of U.S. towns, on crimes its police reported from 2023 to 2025. Year on year, 1.5 violent crimes and 8.6 incidents of property crime occur per 1,000 residents, compared with 3.6 and 15.0 in the rest of Wisconsin.
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.
What stands out about safety in West Salem
Among Wisconsin towns, closer to the middle
Wisconsin’s cities and towns report less crime than most states’, so West Salem’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 47% of the 175 Wisconsin towns we grade, against 60% 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 West Salem’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.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | West Salem property | Rest of Wisconsin property | West Salem violent | Rest of Wisconsin violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 8.2 | 18.2 | 1.3 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 8.9 | 16.0 | 2.6 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 11.3 | 15.4 | 1.1 | 3.8 |
| 2025 | 5.7 | 13.5 | 0.8 | 3.2 |
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 Wisconsin.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | West Salem | Rest of Wisconsin | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.3 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 2.6 | 3.9 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 1.1 | 3.8 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 0.8 | 3.2 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
West Salem’s police reported 24 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.5 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.6 in the rest of Wisconsin and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in West Salem 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.
34 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.
4 violent and 30 property, as reported to the FBI by West Salem’s police.
One person died in crashes on West Salem’s roads in 2019–2023
West Salem had 1 fatal crash in five years, in which one person died. Most of these deaths (1 of 1) 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 Wisconsin towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (3.5 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of West Salem’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so West Salem’s own rate (3.8) 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.
West Salem and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Salem | B | 1.5 | 8.6 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Wisconsin towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Salem | B | 1.5 | 8.6 |
| Delavan | A− | 0.4 | 5.5 |
| Columbus | A− | 0.7 | 4.9 |
| Mayville | A− | 1.3 | 3.7 |
| Summit | A− | 1.0 | 5.5 |
| Prairie du Chien | B− | 2.4 | 10.3 |
The five graded Wisconsin towns closest to West Salem’s population (5,288), 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 West Salem. 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 West Salem’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (5,300 in 2025); our figure for West Salem is 5,288 (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 West Salem
Is West Salem, WI safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, West Salem reports less crime per resident than 60% of U.S. towns, a B Safety Grade and #93 of 175 in Wisconsin. Its police reported 1.5 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 West Salem?
1.5 violent and 8.6 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.
Who polices West Salem?
West Salem’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “West Salem”. 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 West Salem.
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.