Balch Springs, TX is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns a D PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 19% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Balch Springs, TX shows violent crime at 417.6 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,815.2 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 19% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade D from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
D safety grade
417.6/100K violent
2815.2/100K property
+19% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Balch Springs, TX
Comparable rate records
Balch Springs's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Texas cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Balch Springs's 417.6 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Palestine (417.3), Rio Hondo (417.2), Ferris (418.3), Comanche (416.7). These are same-year agency submissions that pass the same completeness screen, not a claim that the cities have identical conditions. They make the cohort position above checkable against named records instead of a generic state average.
Position in the state cohort
Balch Springs reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Texas cities
At 417.6 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Balch Springs ranks 104 of 686 — above 582 of the 685 other Texas cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +133.4% against the cohort median of 178.9. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 698.7 per 100,000 in 2020 to 417.6 in 2024 (-40.2%). The highest observed value was 698.7 in 2020 and the lowest 417.6 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Balch Springs's FBI UCR Table 8 municipal row. Per-100,000 rates use the reporting-year population on that row; cities that fail the completeness test stay out of rate rankings. A citywide figure rarely describes any single neighbourhood inside the municipal boundary.
Mid-size municipal totals above are reported offenses, not safety advice for any single block. Reporting completeness still varies by year and agency.
Balch Springs's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 9.1 Census sq mi, Balch Springs logged 83.2 property and 12.3 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Balch Springs leans on larceny-theft at 57% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,802.
Violent offenses are only 13% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (9.1 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
-15.9%
496.7 → 417.6/100K
Property Crime Rate
-12.7%
3223 → 2815.2/100K
Property offenses lead Balch Springs's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
755
2815.2
1711
Larceny-Theft
491
1830.8
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
175
652.5
-
Burglary
89
331.9
-
Arson
1
3.7
-
Violent Crime
112
417.6
352
Aggravated Assault
72
268.5
-
Robbery
29
108.1
-
Rape
11
41
-
Murder
0
0
-
Balch Springs Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Balch Springs property crime rate trend
Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averagesRead the chart as a list
Balch Springs: 418 violent, 2815 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Denison: 174 violent, 816 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Princeton: 274 violent, 844 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Fate: 59 violent, 483 property per 100,000 (grade A+)
Fulshear: 58 violent, 365 property per 100,000 (grade A+)
Lake Jackson: 261 violent, 1740 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Belton: 93 violent, 1943 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Corsicana: 468 violent, 2259 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Katy: 227 violent, 3254 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Balch Springs Police Department
Reporting agency for Balch Springs NIBRS-participating
Balch Springs Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Balch Springs's 867 reported offenses (5-year span 2020-2024).
This agency reports via NIBRS, the incident-based system that captures more detail per offense (multiple crimes per incident, victim/offender data) than the older summary counts.
Similar-Size Cities in Texas
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Texas cities closest to Balch Springs in population. Their populations run from 25,849 to 27,814, against 26,819 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Balch Springs reported 112 violent crimes and 755 property crimes, for a total of 867 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Balch Springs?
From 2023 to 2024, Balch Springs's violent crime rate decreased by 15.9%, and the property crime rate decreased by 12.7%.
What is the most common crime in Balch Springs?
The most common crime type in Balch Springs is larceny-theft, accounting for 56.6% of all reported crimes (491 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Balch Springs figures are FBI UCR CIUS Table 8 (vintage 2024), population-adjusted per 100,000.
Denominators are the reporting-year population on the municipal row. Incomplete years are dropped from rankings. Confirm at FBI Crime Data Explorer and Census.gov QuickFacts.
Disclaimer (mid-size municipal): figures are informational, not advice. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is the source. Consult a professional before decisions.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Balch Springs, TX rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.