Battle Creek, MI has a F safety grade (8/100) with a violent crime rate of 1122 per 100,000, 219% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Battle Creek, MI Crime Rate & Safety
At 61,163 residents, Battle Creek is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against MI and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Battle Creek, MI carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 219% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Battle Creek, MI shows violent crime at 1,121.6 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,522.8 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 219% 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
1121.6/100K violent
2522.8/100K property
+219% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Battle Creek, MI
Position in the state cohort
Battle Creek reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Michigan cities
At 1121.6 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Battle Creek ranks 14 of 366 — above 352 of the 365 other Michigan cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +499.9% against the cohort median of 187.0. 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
Battle Creek's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Michigan cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Battle Creek's 1121.6 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Inkster (1074.7), Jackson (1061.8), Bangor (1220.8), Flint (1257.8). 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.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 30.8% of the 2,229 Part I offenses reported in Battle Creek for 2024, against a median of 16.7% across comparable Michigan cities — a gap of 14.1 points. Offense mix is shaped by which agencies report and how incidents are classified as well as by the underlying offenses, so it describes the reported record rather than a settled difference in conditions.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 954.1 per 100,000 in 2020 to 1121.6 in 2024 (+17.6%). The highest observed value was 1308.9 in 2023 and the lowest 954.1 in 2020. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property-offense composition
Burglary and vehicle theft carry more of the property total than they do across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 68.0% of reported property offenses in Battle Creek, against a cohort median of 79.7%. The remainder is burglary (312) and motor vehicle theft (181). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Battle Creek'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.
On a large city row, these are citywide reported offense totals - not neighbourhood advice. Conditions vary by place and time; reporting rates differ across jurisdictions.
Battle Creek's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 42.6 Census sq mi, Battle Creek logged 36.2 property and 16.1 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Battle Creek leans on larceny-theft at 47% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,168.
Violent offenses are 31% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (42.6 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Both rates shifted (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
-14.3%
1308.9 → 1121.6/100K
Property Crime Rate
-15.3%
2976.9 → 2522.8/100K
Property offenses lead Battle Creek's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs MI
Property Crime
1,543
2522.8
1395.3
Larceny-Theft
1,050
1716.7
-
Burglary
312
510.1
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
181
295.9
-
Arson
21
34.3
-
Violent Crime
686
1121.6
431.4
Aggravated Assault
579
946.7
-
Rape
68
111.2
-
Robbery
34
55.6
-
Murder
5
8.2
-
Battle Creek Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Battle Creek 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 averages
Battle Creek Police Department
Reporting agency for Battle Creek NIBRS-participating
Battle Creek Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Battle Creek's 2,229 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 Michigan
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Michigan cities closest to Battle Creek in population. Their populations run from 53,891 to 66,366, against 61,163 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Battle Creek at 1,121.6/100K violent and 2,522.8/100K property - matched below outside Michigan (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Battle Creek reported 686 violent crimes and 1,543 property crimes, for a total of 2,229 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Battle Creek?
From 2023 to 2024, Battle Creek's violent crime rate decreased by 14.3%, and the property crime rate decreased by 15.3%.
What is the most common crime in Battle Creek?
The most common crime type in Battle Creek is larceny-theft, accounting for 47.1% of all reported crimes (1,050 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Battle Creek's rates come from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, CIUS Table 8, vintage 2024.
Incomplete reporters stay out of rate rankings. Cross-check population with Census ACS; state UCR programs for statewide context. Primary verify links: FBI.gov UCR, Census QuickFacts.
Disclaimer (large city): informational crime rates only - not legal, insurance, or personal-safety advice. Source: FBI UCR. Ask a qualified professional before acting.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Battle Creek, MI rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.