Forrest City, AR has a F safety grade (5/100) with a violent crime rate of 1176 per 100,000, 234% above the national average.

FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · mid-size city

Forrest City, AR Crime Rate & Safety

Forrest City (12,332 people) sits in the mid-size municipal band. This page opens with per-100,000 FBI UCR rates, then AR and national benchmarks.

Data updated 2026-08-24

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F
Safety grade
2,854.4
Property / 100K
1,175.8
Violent / 100K
12K
Population

Forrest City, AR carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 234% above the U.S. average

According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Forrest City, AR shows violent crime at 1,175.8 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,854.4 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 234% 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
  • 1175.8/100K violent
  • 2854.4/100K property
  • +234% vs U.S.

What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Forrest City, AR

Position in the state cohort

Forrest City reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Arkansas cities

At 1175.8 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Forrest City ranks 12 of 204 — above 192 of the 203 other Arkansas cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +284.0% against the cohort median of 306.2. 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

Forrest City's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Arkansas cohort

The nearest comparable 2024 records to Forrest City's 1175.8 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are North Little Rock (1180.1), Trumann (1180.9), Dumas (1151.0), Camden (1087.3). 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.

2020–2024 direction

The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower

Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 1633.0 per 100,000 in 2020 to 1175.8 in 2024 (-28.0%). The highest observed value was 2209.7 in 2022 and the lowest 1175.8 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.

Offense mix

Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix

Violent offenses are 29.2% of the 497 Part I offenses reported in Forrest City for 2024, against a median of 21.0% across comparable Arkansas cities — a gap of 8.2 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.

Property counts dominate Forrest City'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.

Forrest City's 2024 municipal footprint

Across 20.2 Census sq mi, Forrest City logged 17.4 property and 7.2 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.

Forrest City leans on larceny-theft at 50% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,429.

Violent offenses are 29% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.

Forrest City offense mix (2024)

Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (20.2 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
-37%
1867.5 → 1175.8/100K
Property Crime Rate
-17.8%
3471.7 → 2854.4/100K

Property offenses lead Forrest City's 2024 record

Offense Count Rate /100K
Property Crime 352 2854.4
Larceny-Theft 250 2027.2
Burglary 53 429.8
Motor Vehicle Theft 49 397.3
Arson 3 24.3
Violent Crime 145 1175.8
Aggravated Assault 130 1054.2
Rape 7 56.8
Murder 5 40.5
Robbery 3 24.3

Forrest City Crime Trend (2020-2024)

Forrest City property crime rate trend

Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR

Property crime rate (2024)
2,854.4/100K 17.8% vs 2023
2,5003,0003,5004,0004,5005,000 20202021202220232024 2,854

Forrest City violent crime rate trend

Secondary series · fell · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR

Violent crime rate (2024)
1,175.8/100K 37% vs 2023
1,0001,5002,0002,500 20202021202220232024 1,176
Year Coverage Population Violent Rate Property Rate
2020 Comparable 13,656 1633 4562.1
2021 Comparable 13,496 1845 4882.9
2022 Comparable 12,807 2209.7 4177.4
2023 Comparable 12,530 1867.5 3471.7
2024 Comparable 12,332 1175.8 2854.4

How Forrest City sits among AR peers

POP-MIDCOHORT-SIZEVIOL-HIGHPROP-HIGHQUAD-HHGRADE-FNIBRSUCR-2024
Forrest City vs. similar-size AR cities, violent vs. property crime. X axis violent crime per 100K, Y axis property crime per 100K, split by the national averages. 9 cities; the anchor is ringed. Forrest City vs. similar-size AR cities, violent vs. property crime 232 1,469 Violent crime per 100K → 576 4,773 Property crime per 100K → Forrest City SAFEST HIGHEST CRIME Safety grade A / B C D / F
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages

Forrest City Police Department

Reporting agency for Forrest City NIBRS-participating

Forrest City Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Forrest City's 497 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 Arkansas

Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Arkansas cities closest to Forrest City in population. Their populations run from 10,650 to 13,619, against 12,332 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.

Forrest City's closest AR violent-rate matches

Forrest City sits at 1,175.8/100K violent (grade F); the Arkansas cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.

Out-of-state peers for Forrest City

Forrest City at 1,175.8/100K violent and 2,854.4/100K property - matched below outside Arkansas (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).

More about Forrest City's 2024 record

How many crimes were reported in Forrest City?

In 2024, Forrest City reported 145 violent crimes and 352 property crimes, for a total of 497 reported offenses.

Is crime increasing or decreasing in Forrest City?

From 2023 to 2024, Forrest City's violent crime rate decreased by 37%, and the property crime rate decreased by 17.8%.

What is the most common crime in Forrest City?

The most common crime type in Forrest City is larceny-theft, accounting for 50.3% of all reported crimes (250 incidents in 2024).

Mid-size read: Forrest City 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.

Federal sources for this mid-size row
Cite, share, or save this city record

Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Forrest City, AR rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.

Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)

Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. Forrest City is scored in the mid-size municipal band (12,332 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.