Independence, MO has a F safety grade (13/100) with a violent crime rate of 571 per 100,000, 62% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Independence, MO Crime Rate & Safety
At 120,271 residents, Independence is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against MO and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Independence, MO carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 62% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Independence, MO shows violent crime at 571.2 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 3,523.7 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 62% 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
571.2/100K violent
3523.7/100K property
+62% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Independence, MO
Position in the state cohort
Independence reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Missouri cities
At 571.2 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Independence ranks 37 of 272 — above 235 of the 271 other Missouri cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +209.9% against the cohort median of 184.3. 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
Independence's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Missouri cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Independence's 571.2 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Kennett (570.2), Malden (576.7), Joplin (560.4), Houston (585.3). 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 695.3 per 100,000 in 2020 to 571.2 in 2024 (-17.8%). The highest observed value was 695.3 in 2020 and the lowest 234.4 in 2023. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property-offense composition
Burglary and vehicle theft carry more of the property total than they do across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 65.3% of reported property offenses in Independence, against a cohort median of 78.6%. The remainder is burglary (490) and motor vehicle theft (980). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Independence'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.
On a large city row, these are citywide reported offense totals - not neighbourhood advice. Conditions vary by place and time; reporting rates differ across jurisdictions.
Independence's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 78 Census sq mi, Independence logged 54.3 property and 8.8 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Independence leans on larceny-theft at 56% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,756.
Violent offenses are only 14% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (78 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Both rates shifted (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
+143.7%
234.4 → 571.2/100K
Property Crime Rate
+134.8%
1500.9 → 3523.7/100K
Property offenses lead Independence's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs MO
Property Crime
4,238
3523.7
1711
1971.6
Larceny-Theft
2,768
2301.5
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
980
814.8
-
-
Burglary
490
407.4
-
-
Arson
18
15
-
-
Violent Crime
687
571.2
352
463.3
Aggravated Assault
477
396.6
-
-
Rape
108
89.8
-
-
Robbery
91
75.7
-
-
Murder
11
9.1
-
-
Independence Crime Trend (2020-2024)
The chart omits 2023 rather than drawing an unsupported zero or partial-coverage dip. The table preserves the year and marks the gap.
Independence property crime rate trend
Lead series · fell across 4 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Independence Police Department
Reporting agency for Independence NIBRS-participating
Independence Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Independence's 4,925 reported offenses (4-year span 2020-2024, 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.
Similar-Size Cities in Missouri
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Missouri cities closest to Independence in population. Their populations run from 59,993 to 170,527, against 120,271 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Independence reported 687 violent crimes and 4,238 property crimes, for a total of 4,925 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Independence?
From 2023 to 2024, Independence's violent crime rate increased by 143.7%, and the property crime rate increased by 134.8%.
What is the most common crime in Independence?
The most common crime type in Independence is larceny-theft, accounting for 56.2% of all reported crimes (2,768 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Independence's rates come from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, CIUS Table 8, vintage 2024.
Incomplete reporters stay out of rate rankings. Cross-check population with Census ACS; state UCR programs for statewide context. Primary verify links: FBI.gov UCR, Census QuickFacts.
Disclaimer (large city): informational crime rates only - not legal, insurance, or personal-safety advice. Source: FBI UCR. Ask a qualified professional before acting.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Independence, MO rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.