Early, TX is higher-crime than most U.S. cities, and earns a C PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 14% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Early, TX shows violent crime at 399.6 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,260.4 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 14% above 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
399.6/100K violent
1260.4/100K property
+14% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Early, TX
Small-count caution
The violent-crime count is small enough that the derived rate is unstable
Early reported 13 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 3,253. 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.
Comparable rate records
Early's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Texas cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Early's 399.6 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Borger (400.6), Lampasas (397.8), Mercedes (402.5), Gladewater (396.0). 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
Early reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Texas cities
At 399.6 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Early ranks 115 of 686 — above 571 of the 685 other Texas cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +123.3% 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.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 24.1% of the 54 Part I offenses reported in Early for 2024, against a median of 14.3% across comparable Texas cities — a gap of 9.8 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 lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 468.0 per 100,000 in 2020 to 399.6 in 2024 (-14.6%). The highest observed value was 507.0 in 2021 and the lowest 399.6 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Early'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 13 reported violent incidents in a population of 3,253. 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.
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.
Early's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 3.7 Census sq mi, Early logged 11 property and 3.5 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Early leans on larceny-theft at 54% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,669.
Violent offenses are 24% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (3.7 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
-13.6%
462.5 → 399.6/100K
Property Crime Rate
+2.2%
1233.4 → 1260.4/100K
Property offenses lead Early's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs TX
Property Crime
41
1260.4
2058.2
Larceny-Theft
29
891.5
-
Burglary
10
307.4
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
2
61.5
-
Arson
0
0
-
Violent Crime
13
399.6
394.7
Aggravated Assault
11
338.1
-
Rape
2
61.5
-
Murder
0
0
-
Robbery
0
0
-
Early Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Early 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 averagesRead the chart as a list
Early: 400 violent, 1260 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Lytle: 31 violent, 2967 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Onalaska: 458 violent, 1284 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Castroville: 219 violent, 1529 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Grand Saline: 454 violent, 696 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Crane: 60 violent, 271 property per 100,000 (grade A+)
Combes: 126 violent, 1259 property per 100,000 (grade A)
La Villa: 190 violent, 1108 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Dilley: 179 violent, 597 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Early Police Department
Reporting agency for Early NIBRS-participating
Early Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Early's 54 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 Early in population. Their populations run from 3,160 to 3,353, against 3,253 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Early reported 13 violent crimes and 41 property crimes, for a total of 54 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Early?
From 2023 to 2024, Early's violent crime rate decreased by 13.6%, and the property crime rate increased by 2.2%.
What is the most common crime in Early?
The most common crime type in Early is larceny-theft, accounting for 53.7% of all reported crimes (29 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: Early 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.