La Junta, CO is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns an F PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 43% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, La Junta, CO shows violent crime at 504.2 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 7,000.9 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 43% 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
504.2/100K violent
7000.9/100K property
+43% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for La Junta, CO
Comparable rate records
La Junta's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Colorado cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to La Junta's 504.2 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Fountain (481.5), Wheat Ridge (480.8), Idaho Springs (476.8), Brighton (471.9). 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
La Junta reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Colorado cities
At 504.2 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, La Junta ranks 20 of 134 — above 114 of the 133 other Colorado cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +158.6% 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
The reported mix leans further toward property offenses than the state cohort
Violent offenses are 6.7% of the 521 Part I offenses reported in La Junta for 2024, against a median of 11.7% across comparable Colorado cities — a gap of 5.0 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 higher
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 481.1 per 100,000 in 2020 to 504.2 in 2024 (+4.8%). The highest observed value was 541.6 in 2021 and the lowest 395.8 in 2023. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate La Junta'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.
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.
La Junta's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 3.2 Census sq mi, La Junta logged 152.1 property and 11 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
La Junta's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (75% of 521 offenses; mix index 5,819).
Violent offenses are only 7% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (3.2 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Both rates shifted (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
+27.4%
395.8 → 504.2/100K
Property Crime Rate
+30.3%
5371.8 → 7000.9/100K
Property offenses lead La Junta's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs CO
Property Crime
486
7000.9
1711
2640.7
Larceny-Theft
389
5603.6
-
-
Burglary
73
1051.6
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
24
345.7
-
-
Arson
1
14.4
-
-
Violent Crime
35
504.2
352
481.2
Aggravated Assault
26
374.5
-
-
Rape
7
100.8
-
-
Murder
1
14.4
-
-
Robbery
1
14.4
-
-
La Junta Crime Trend (2020-2024)
La Junta 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 averages
La Junta Police Department
Reporting agency for La Junta NIBRS-participating
La Junta Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind La Junta's 521 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 La Junta in population. Their populations run from 6,222 to 7,468, against 6,942 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, La Junta reported 35 violent crimes and 486 property crimes, for a total of 521 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in La Junta?
From 2023 to 2024, La Junta's violent crime rate increased by 27.4%, and the property crime rate increased by 30.3%.
What is the most common crime in La Junta?
The most common crime type in La Junta is larceny-theft, accounting for 74.7% of all reported crimes (389 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: La Junta 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.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 La Junta, CO rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.