Pittsfield, MA is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns a D PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 45% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Pittsfield, MA shows violent crime at 511.3 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,239.6 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 45% 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
511.3/100K violent
1239.6/100K property
+45% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Pittsfield, MA
Position in the state cohort
Pittsfield reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Massachusetts cities
At 511.3 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Pittsfield ranks 15 of 317 — above 302 of the 316 other Massachusetts cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +255.5% against the cohort median of 143.8. 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
Pittsfield's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Massachusetts cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Pittsfield's 511.3 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Lowell (532.5), Fitchburg (486.6), Leominster (484.2), Hadley (455.9). 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 819.3 per 100,000 in 2020 to 511.3 in 2024 (-37.6%). The highest observed value was 819.3 in 2020 and the lowest 511.3 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 750 Part I offenses reported in Pittsfield for 2024, against a median of 21.4% across comparable Massachusetts cities — a gap of 7.8 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-offense composition
Burglary and vehicle theft carry more of the property total than they do across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 61.0% of reported property offenses in Pittsfield, against a cohort median of 78.1%. The remainder is burglary (165) and motor vehicle theft (42). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Pittsfield'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.
Pittsfield's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 40.5 Census sq mi, Pittsfield logged 13.1 property and 5.4 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Pittsfield leans on larceny-theft at 43% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 2,888.
Violent offenses are 29% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (40.5 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
-21.1%
647.7 → 511.3/100K
Property Crime Rate
-5.3%
1309.3 → 1239.6/100K
Property offenses lead Pittsfield's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
531
1239.6
1711
Larceny-Theft
324
756.4
-
Burglary
165
385.2
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
42
98.1
-
Arson
1
2.3
-
Violent Crime
219
511.3
352
Aggravated Assault
163
380.5
-
Rape
42
98.1
-
Robbery
12
28
-
Murder
2
4.7
-
Pittsfield Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Pittsfield 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
Pittsfield Police Department
Reporting agency for Pittsfield NIBRS-participating
Pittsfield Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Pittsfield's 750 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 Massachusetts
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Massachusetts cities closest to Pittsfield in population. Their populations run from 39,837 to 44,407, against 42,835 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Pittsfield reported 219 violent crimes and 531 property crimes, for a total of 750 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Pittsfield?
From 2023 to 2024, Pittsfield's violent crime rate decreased by 21.1%, and the property crime rate decreased by 5.3%.
What is the most common crime in Pittsfield?
The most common crime type in Pittsfield is larceny-theft, accounting for 43.2% of all reported crimes (324 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Pittsfield 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 Pittsfield, MA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.