Brighton, CO is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns a D PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 34% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Brighton, CO shows violent crime at 471.9 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,519 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 34% 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
471.9/100K violent
2519/100K property
+34% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Brighton, CO
Comparable rate records
Brighton's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Colorado cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Brighton's 471.9 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Longmont (469.3), Idaho Springs (476.8), Craig (464.0), Wheat Ridge (480.8). 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.
Position in the state cohort
Brighton reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Colorado cities
At 471.9 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Brighton ranks 24 of 134 — above 110 of the 133 other Colorado cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +142.1% against the cohort median of 194.9. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 15.8% of the 1,293 Part I offenses reported in Brighton for 2024, against a median of 11.7% across comparable Colorado cities — a gap of 4.1 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 close to where it started
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 472.5 per 100,000 in 2020 to 471.9 in 2024 (-0.1%). The highest observed value was 472.5 in 2020 and the lowest 382.8 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Brighton'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.
Brighton's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 21.7 Census sq mi, Brighton logged 50.1 property and 9.4 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Brighton's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (64% of 1,293 offenses; mix index 4,418).
Violent offenses are 16% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (21.7 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
-7.2%
2714.3 → 2519/100K
Violent Crime Rate
+2.8%
459 → 471.9/100K
Property offenses lead Brighton's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
1,089
2519
1711
Larceny-Theft
823
1903.7
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
158
365.5
-
Burglary
108
249.8
-
Arson
6
13.9
-
Violent Crime
204
471.9
352
Aggravated Assault
152
351.6
-
Rape
35
81
-
Robbery
16
37
-
Murder
1
2.3
-
Brighton Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Brighton 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
Brighton Police Department
Reporting agency for Brighton NIBRS-participating
Brighton Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Brighton's 1,293 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 Colorado
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Colorado cities closest to Brighton in population. Their populations run from 28,037 to 44,076, against 43,231 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Brighton reported 204 violent crimes and 1,089 property crimes, for a total of 1,293 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Brighton?
From 2023 to 2024, Brighton's violent crime rate increased by 2.8%, and the property crime rate decreased by 7.2%.
What is the most common crime in Brighton?
The most common crime type in Brighton is larceny-theft, accounting for 63.7% of all reported crimes (823 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Brighton 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 Brighton, CO rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.