Balcones Heights, TX is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns an F PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 389% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Balcones Heights, TX shows violent crime at 1,722.2 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 13,103.7 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 389% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade F from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
F safety grade
1722.2/100K violent
13103.7/100K property
+389% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Balcones Heights, TX
Position in the state cohort
Balcones Heights reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Texas cities
At 1722.2 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Balcones Heights ranks 2 of 686 — above 684 of the 685 other Texas cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +862.4% 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.
Comparable rate records
Balcones Heights's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Texas cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Balcones Heights's 1722.2 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Donna (1757.9), South Padre Island (1428.6), Gonzales (1395.2), Houston (1148.2). 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 1487.2 per 100,000 in 2020 to 1722.2 in 2024 (+15.8%). The highest observed value was 1722.2 in 2024 and the lowest 1449.3 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Balcones Heights'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.
Small-city offense counts above are voluntary UCR submissions, not neighbourhood advice. Year-to-year swings can look large when the population base is modest.
Balcones Heights's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 0.7 Census sq mi, Balcones Heights logged 534.4 property and 70.2 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Balcones Heights's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (68% of 396 offenses; mix index 5,013).
Violent offenses are only 12% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (0.7 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Property rate moved most (2023→2024)
Property Crime Rate
+28.4%
10204.1 → 13103.7/100K
Violent Crime Rate
+5.5%
1632.7 → 1722.2/100K
Property offenses lead Balcones Heights's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs TX
Property Crime
350
13103.7
1711
2058.2
Larceny-Theft
270
10108.6
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
62
2321.2
-
-
Burglary
18
673.9
-
-
Arson
3
112.3
-
-
Violent Crime
46
1722.2
352
394.7
Aggravated Assault
39
1460.1
-
-
Rape
4
149.8
-
-
Robbery
2
74.9
-
-
Murder
1
37.4
-
-
Balcones Heights Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Balcones Heights property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose 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
Balcones Heights: 1722 violent, 13104 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Jonestown: 225 violent, 1835 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Westworth: 559 violent, 4542 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Edcouch: 188 violent, 226 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Stanton: 151 violent, 1435 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Gunter: 77 violent, 422 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Elmendorf: 77 violent, 1650 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Palmer: 38 violent, 269 property per 100,000 (grade A+)
West: 116 violent, 308 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Balcones Heights Police Department
Reporting agency for Balcones Heights NIBRS-participating
Balcones Heights Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Balcones Heights's 396 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 Balcones Heights in population. Their populations run from 2,597 to 2,686, against 2,671 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
How many crimes were reported in Balcones Heights?
In 2024, Balcones Heights reported 46 violent crimes and 350 property crimes, for a total of 396 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Balcones Heights?
From 2023 to 2024, Balcones Heights's violent crime rate increased by 5.5%, and the property crime rate increased by 28.4%.
What is the most common crime in Balcones Heights?
The most common crime type in Balcones Heights is larceny-theft, accounting for 68.2% of all reported crimes (270 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: Balcones Heights is sourced from FBI UCR Table 8 for 2024; rates use that row's population.
Small-city rows use the same per-100,000 formula; a few unreported years can leave gaps in the trend table. Verify the agency's submission on FBI.gov UCR.
Disclaimer (small city): UCR counts here are informational only. They are not a victimization probability. Source: FBI UCR Program.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Balcones Heights, TX rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.