Pontoon Beach, IL carries a PlainCrime C safety grade with violent crime 26% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Pontoon Beach, IL shows violent crime at 259.2 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,693.7 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 26% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade C from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
C safety grade
259.2/100K violent
1693.7/100K property
-26% vs U.S.
The verdict
Pontoon Beach earns a C safety grade: violent crime runs 26% below the U.S. average, placing it higher-crime than most U.S. cities.
C
PlainCrime safety grade
-26%
violent crime vs. U.S. average
35th
percentile of 7,769 U.S. cities
1,693.7
property crimes per 100K
Based on 15 reported violent incidents in a population of 5,786. At this volume, one additional or one fewer report can shift the rate and letter grade noticeably; small-city crime counts are inherently more volatile year to year than large-city counts, so treat this grade as a data point, not a precise ranking.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Pontoon Beach, IL
Small-count caution
The violent-crime count is small enough that the derived rate is unstable
Pontoon Beach reported 15 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 5,786. At this volume one additional or one fewer report moves the per-100,000 rate noticeably, so the figure is better read as a data point than as a precise measurement, and year-to-year swings here are expected.
Comparable rate records
Pontoon Beach's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Illinois cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Pontoon Beach's 259.2 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Riverton (260.3), Clinton (261.8), Hillside (256.1), Hinckley (254.8). 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
Pontoon Beach reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Illinois cities
At 259.2 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Pontoon Beach ranks 108 of 506 — above 398 of the 505 other Illinois cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +160.1% against the cohort median of 99.7. 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 59.2% of reported property offenses in Pontoon Beach, against a cohort median of 70.3%. The remainder is burglary (17) and motor vehicle theft (23). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Pontoon Beach'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.
Based on 15 reported violent incidents in a population of 5,786. At this volume, one additional or one fewer report can shift the rate and letter grade noticeably; small-city crime counts are inherently more volatile year to year than large-city counts, so treat this grade as a data point, not a precise ranking.
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.
Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
+50.6%
172.1 → 259.2/100K
Property Crime Rate
+29.5%
1307.9 → 1693.7/100K
Property offenses lead Pontoon Beach's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs IL
Property Crime
98
1693.7
1664.8
Larceny-Theft
58
1002.4
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
23
397.5
-
Burglary
17
293.8
-
Arson
2
34.6
-
Violent Crime
15
259.2
277.5
Aggravated Assault
7
121
-
Rape
5
86.4
-
Robbery
3
51.8
-
Murder
0
0
-
Pontoon Beach Crime Trend (2020-2024)
The chart omits 2020, 2021, 2022 rather than drawing an unsupported zero or partial-coverage dip. The table preserves the year and marks the gap.
Pontoon Beach property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose across 2 comparable years · FBI UCR
Property crime rate (2024)
1,693.7/100K↑29.5%vs 2023
Pontoon Beach violent crime rate trend
Secondary series · rose · 2023-2024 · FBI UCR
Violent crime rate (2024)
259.2/100K↑50.6%vs 2023
Year
Coverage
Population
Violent Rate
Property Rate
Total Crimes
2020
Insufficient reporting
5,617
-
-
-
2021
Insufficient reporting
5,633
-
-
-
2022
Insufficient reporting
5,878
-
-
-
2023
Comparable
5,811
172.1
1307.9
86
2024
Comparable
5,786
259.2
1693.7
113
How Pontoon Beach sits among IL peers
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Reporting Agency
Pontoon Beach Police Department NIBRS-participating
Pontoon Beach's crime figures on this page originate from Pontoon Beach Police Department's submission to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program.
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 Illinois
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Illinois cities closest to Pontoon Beach in population. Their populations run from 5,639 to 5,833, against 5,786 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
These Illinois cities report the closest violent-crime rates to Pontoon Beach's 259.2/100K (same FBI UCR vintage rules; size peers above are excluded so the two lists stay distinct).
Pontoon Beach has a violent crime rate of 259.2 per 100,000 residents and a property crime rate of 1693.7 per 100,000, based on 2024 FBI UCR data.
Is Pontoon Beach, IL safe? ▼
Pontoon Beach receives a safety grade of C (Average), with a safety score of 59/100. The violent crime rate is 26% below the national average and 7% below the Illinois average.
What is the population of Pontoon Beach, IL? ▼
The reporting population for Pontoon Beach is 5,786 as of 2024.
How many crimes were reported in Pontoon Beach? ▼
In 2024, Pontoon Beach reported 15 violent crimes and 98 property crimes, for a total of 113 reported offenses.
How do Pontoon Beach's reported offenses compare with its population? ▼
In 2024, Pontoon Beach recorded about one reported offense per 51 residents and one reported violent offense per 386 residents. These ratios count reported offenses, not distinct victims, and are not a person's probability of victimization.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Pontoon Beach? ▼
From 2023 to 2024, Pontoon Beach's violent crime rate increased by 50.6%, and the property crime rate increased by 29.5%.
What is the most common crime in Pontoon Beach? ▼
The most common crime type in Pontoon Beach is larceny-theft, accounting for 51.3% of all reported crimes (58 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: Pontoon Beach 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 Pontoon Beach, IL rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.