Moses Lake, WA carries a PlainCrime D safety grade with violent crime 12% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Moses Lake, WA shows violent crime at 394.4 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 4,236.8 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 12% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade D from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
D safety grade
394.4/100K violent
4236.8/100K property
+12% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Moses Lake, WA
Comparable rate records
Moses Lake's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Washington cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Moses Lake's 394.4 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Milton (391.3), Port Orchard (388.2), Chehalis (381.4), SeaTac (410.0). 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
Moses Lake reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Washington cities
At 394.4 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Moses Lake ranks 24 of 164 — above 140 of the 163 other Washington cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +114.5% against the cohort median of 183.9. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 379.2 per 100,000 in 2020 to 394.4 in 2024 (+4.0%). The highest observed value was 529.0 in 2022 and the lowest 379.2 in 2020. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Moses Lake'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.
Moses Lake's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 18.1 Census sq mi, Moses Lake logged 62.2 property and 5.8 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Moses Lake's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (74% of 1,233 offenses; mix index 5,759).
Violent offenses are only 9% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (18.1 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
-17.4%
477.7 → 394.4/100K
Property Crime Rate
-1.7%
4310.4 → 4236.8/100K
Property offenses lead Moses Lake's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
1,128
4236.8
1711
Larceny-Theft
917
3444.3
-
Burglary
163
612.2
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
48
180.3
-
Arson
10
37.6
-
Violent Crime
105
394.4
352
Aggravated Assault
72
270.4
-
Robbery
21
78.9
-
Murder
6
22.5
-
Rape
6
22.5
-
Moses Lake Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Moses Lake 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
Moses Lake Police Department
Reporting agency for Moses Lake NIBRS-participating
Moses Lake Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Moses Lake's 1,233 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 Washington
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Washington cities closest to Moses Lake in population. Their populations run from 22,839 to 28,551, against 26,624 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Moses Lake at 394.4/100K violent and 4,236.8/100K property - matched below outside Washington (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Moses Lake reported 105 violent crimes and 1,128 property crimes, for a total of 1,233 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Moses Lake?
From 2023 to 2024, Moses Lake's violent crime rate decreased by 17.4%, and the property crime rate decreased by 1.7%.
What is the most common crime in Moses Lake?
The most common crime type in Moses Lake is larceny-theft, accounting for 74.4% of all reported crimes (917 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Moses Lake 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.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Moses Lake, WA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.