Bernards Township, NJ has a A+ safety grade (97/100) with a violent crime rate of 10 per 100,000, 97% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · mid-size city
Bernards Township (28,921 people) sits in the mid-size municipal band. This page opens with per-100,000 FBI UCR rates, then NJ and national benchmarks.
Data updated 2026-09-05
Bernards Township, NJ is among the safest cities in the country, and earns an A+ PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 97% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Bernards Township, NJ shows violent crime at 10.4 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 176.3 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 97% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade A+ from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
2021–2024 direction
Across 3 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 3.5 per 100,000 in 2021 to 10.4 in 2024 (+193.4%). The highest observed value was 10.4 in 2024 and the lowest 3.5 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Small-count caution
Bernards Township reported 3 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 28,921. At this volume one additional or one fewer report moves the per-100,000 rate noticeably, so the figure is better read as a data point than as a precise measurement, and year-to-year swings here are expected.
Position in the state cohort
At 10.4 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Bernards Township ranks 366 of 417 — above 51 of the 416 other New Jersey cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -84.9% against the cohort median of 68.5. 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
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Bernards Township's 10.4 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Colts Neck Township (10.1), Hackettstown (9.9), Kinnelon (9.8), Waterford Township (9.4). 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.
Property-offense composition
Larceny-theft is 56.9% of reported property offenses in Bernards Township, against a cohort median of 82.1%. The remainder is burglary (20) and motor vehicle theft (2). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Bernards Township'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.
Based on 3 reported violent incidents in a population of 28,921. At this volume, one additional or one fewer report can shift the rate and letter grade noticeably; small-city crime counts are inherently more volatile year to year than large-city counts, so treat this grade as a data point, not a precise ranking.
Mid-size municipal totals above are reported offenses, not safety advice for any single block. Reporting completeness still varies by year and agency.
Bernards Township's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (54% of 54 offenses; mix index 4,300).
Violent offenses are only 6% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Bernards Township offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (when validated); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
| Offense | Count | Rate /100K |
|---|---|---|
| Property Crime | 51 | 176.3 |
| Larceny-Theft | 29 | 100.3 |
| Burglary | 20 | 69.2 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 2 | 6.9 |
| Arson | 0 | 0 |
| Violent Crime | 3 | 10.4 |
| Aggravated Assault | 3 | 10.4 |
| Murder | 0 | 0 |
| Rape | 0 | 0 |
| Robbery | 0 | 0 |
The chart omits 2020, 2023 rather than drawing an unsupported zero or partial-coverage dip. The table preserves the year and marks the gap.
Lead series · rose across 3 comparable years · FBI UCR
Secondary series · rose · 2021-2024 · FBI UCR
| Year | Coverage | Population | Violent Rate | Property Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Insufficient reporting | 27,130 | - | - |
| 2021 | Comparable | 28,288 | 3.5 | 88.4 |
| 2022 | Comparable | 27,682 | 3.6 | 238.4 |
| 2023 | Insufficient reporting | 28,151 | - | - |
| 2024 | Comparable | 28,921 | 10.4 | 176.3 |
Bernards Township Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Bernards Township's 54 reported offenses (3-year span 2021-2024, with internal gaps).
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.
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the New Jersey cities closest to Bernards Township in population. Their populations run from 27,835 to 30,405, against 28,921 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
Bernards Township sits at 10.4/100K violent (grade A+); the New Jersey cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
Bernards Township at 10.4/100K violent and 176.3/100K property - matched below outside New Jersey (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
10.4/100K here; nearest out-of-state matches.
176.3/100K here; violent-rate peers above excluded.
In 2024, Bernards Township reported 3 violent crimes and 51 property crimes, for a total of 54 reported offenses.
The most common crime type in Bernards Township is larceny-theft, accounting for 53.7% of all reported crimes (29 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Bernards Township 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.
Mid-size rate methodology for how Bernards Township's mid-size city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Bernards Township, NJ rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.
Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)
Put this to use
Put the Bernards Township, NJ FBI UCR record to work: compare peers, open the state atlas, or look up another city.
A citywide UCR rate is a starting point, not a neighbourhood verdict: read the full profile and the year coverage notes before drawing conclusions.
Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. Bernards Township is scored in the mid-size municipal band (28,921 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.