Lake Charles, LA has a F safety grade (17/100) with a violent crime rate of 613 per 100,000, 74% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Lake Charles, LA Crime Rate & Safety
At 77,982 residents, Lake Charles is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against LA and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Lake Charles, LA is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns an F PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 74% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Lake Charles, LA shows violent crime at 613 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,469.8 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 74% 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
613/100K violent
2469.8/100K property
+74% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Lake Charles, LA
Comparable rate records
Lake Charles's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Louisiana cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Lake Charles's 613.0 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Scott (661.7), Morgan City (551.4), Walker (703.3), Tallulah (461.2). 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 518.5 per 100,000 in 2020 to 613.0 in 2024 (+18.2%). The highest observed value was 638.8 in 2023 and the lowest 518.5 in 2020. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Position in the state cohort
Lake Charles sits mid-pack among comparable Louisiana cities
At 613.0 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Lake Charles ranks 27 of 66 — above 39 of the 65 other Louisiana cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +44.6% against the cohort median of 423.9. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Property-offense composition
Burglary and vehicle theft carry more of the property total than they do across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 66.9% of reported property offenses in Lake Charles, against a cohort median of 77.3%. The remainder is burglary (478) and motor vehicle theft (160). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Lake Charles'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.
Lake Charles's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 47.5 Census sq mi, Lake Charles logged 40.6 property and 10.1 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Lake Charles leans on larceny-theft at 54% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,560.
Violent offenses are 20% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (47.5 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Property rate moved most (2023→2024)
Property Crime Rate
-16.2%
2946.6 → 2469.8/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-4%
638.8 → 613/100K
Property offenses lead Lake Charles's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs LA
Property Crime
1,926
2469.8
1711
1772.7
Larceny-Theft
1,288
1651.7
-
-
Burglary
478
613
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
160
205.2
-
-
Arson
0
0
-
-
Violent Crime
478
613
352
410
Aggravated Assault
374
479.6
-
-
Robbery
50
64.1
-
-
Rape
41
52.6
-
-
Murder
13
16.7
-
-
Lake Charles Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Lake Charles 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 averages
Lake Charles Police Department
Reporting agency for Lake Charles NIBRS-participating
Lake Charles Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Lake Charles's 2,404 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 Louisiana
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Louisiana cities closest to Lake Charles in population. Their populations run from 22,259 to 121,471, against 77,982 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Lake Charles at 613/100K violent and 2,469.8/100K property - matched below outside Louisiana (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Lake Charles reported 478 violent crimes and 1,926 property crimes, for a total of 2,404 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Lake Charles?
From 2023 to 2024, Lake Charles's violent crime rate decreased by 4%, and the property crime rate decreased by 16.2%.
What is the most common crime in Lake Charles?
The most common crime type in Lake Charles is larceny-theft, accounting for 53.6% of all reported crimes (1,288 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Lake Charles'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 Lake Charles, LA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.