Cortland, NY is higher-crime than most U.S. cities, and earns a C PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 36% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Cortland, NY shows violent crime at 226.8 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,954 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 36% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade C from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
C safety grade
226.8/100K violent
2954/100K property
-36% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Cortland, NY
Comparable rate records
Cortland's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the New York cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Cortland's 226.8 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Perry Village (224.2), Blasdell Village (236.9), Rome (237.5), Elmira Heights Village (213.2). 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.
Position in the state cohort
Cortland reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable New York cities
At 226.8 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Cortland ranks 50 of 326 — above 276 of the 325 other New York cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +275.3% against the cohort median of 60.4. 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 263.2 per 100,000 in 2020 to 226.8 in 2024 (-13.8%). The highest observed value was 371.8 in 2023 and the lowest 201.3 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Cortland'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.
Cortland's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 3.9 Census sq mi, Cortland logged 130.5 property and 10 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Cortland's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (81% of 547 offenses; mix index 6,728).
Violent offenses are only 7% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (3.9 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
-39%
371.8 → 226.8/100K
Property Crime Rate
-1.8%
3009 → 2954/100K
Property offenses lead Cortland's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs NY
vs US avg
Property Crime
508
2954
1661.2
1711
Larceny-Theft
444
2581.8
-
-
Burglary
56
325.6
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
8
46.5
-
-
Arson
3
17.4
-
-
Violent Crime
39
226.8
380
352
Aggravated Assault
30
174.4
-
-
Rape
7
40.7
-
-
Robbery
2
11.6
-
-
Murder
0
0
-
-
Cortland Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Cortland 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
Cortland: 227 violent, 2954 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Oswego City: 340 violent, 3553 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Scarsdale Village: 6 violent, 341 property per 100,000 (grade A+)
East Greenbush Town: 116 violent, 1350 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Oneonta City: 80 violent, 733 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Bedford Town: 25 violent, 235 property per 100,000 (grade A+)
Cohoes: 186 violent, 1102 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Rye: 12 violent, 255 property per 100,000 (grade A+)
New Paltz Town and Village: 57 violent, 672 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Cortland Police Department
Reporting agency for Cortland NIBRS-participating
Cortland Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Cortland's 547 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 New York
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the New York cities closest to Cortland in population. Their populations run from 15,926 to 18,240, against 17,197 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Cortland reported 39 violent crimes and 508 property crimes, for a total of 547 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Cortland?
From 2023 to 2024, Cortland's violent crime rate decreased by 39%, and the property crime rate decreased by 1.8%.
What is the most common crime in Cortland?
The most common crime type in Cortland is larceny-theft, accounting for 81.2% of all reported crimes (444 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Cortland 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 Cortland, NY rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.