Portales, NM carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 122% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Portales, NM shows violent crime at 781.5 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,871.2 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 122% 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
781.5/100K violent
2871.2/100K property
+122% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Portales, NM
Comparable rate records
Portales's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the New Mexico cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Portales's 781.5 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Hobbs (790.3), Truth or Consequences (818.7), Lordsburg (831.8), Santa Fe (842.1). 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
Portales reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable New Mexico cities
At 781.5 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Portales ranks 11 of 43 — above 32 of the 42 other New Mexico cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +63.6% against the cohort median of 477.6. 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 37.3% of reported property offenses in Portales, against a cohort median of 65.6%. The remainder is burglary (176) and motor vehicle theft (36). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher
Across 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 685.5 per 100,000 in 2020 to 781.5 in 2024 (+14.0%). The highest observed value was 781.5 in 2024 and the lowest 651.4 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Portales'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.
Portales's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 8 Census sq mi, Portales logged 42.1 property and 11.5 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Portales leans on burglary at 41% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 2,960.
Violent offenses are 21% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (8 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
+47.9%
1940.9 → 2871.2/100K
Violent Crime Rate
+13.4%
689 → 781.5/100K
Property offenses lead Portales's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
338
2871.2
1711
Burglary
176
1495.1
-
Larceny-Theft
126
1070.3
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
36
305.8
-
Arson
11
93.4
-
Violent Crime
92
781.5
352
Aggravated Assault
80
679.6
-
Rape
6
51
-
Robbery
5
42.5
-
Murder
1
8.5
-
Portales Crime Trend (2020-2024)
The chart omits 2021 rather than drawing an unsupported zero or partial-coverage dip. The table preserves the year and marks the gap.
Portales property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose across 4 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Portales Police Department
Reporting agency for Portales NIBRS-participating
Portales Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Portales's 430 reported offenses (4-year span 2020-2024, with internal gaps).
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 New Mexico
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the New Mexico cities closest to Portales in population. Their populations run from 7,330 to 12,816, against 11,772 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Portales at 781.5/100K violent and 2,871.2/100K property - matched below outside New Mexico (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Portales reported 92 violent crimes and 338 property crimes, for a total of 430 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Portales?
From 2023 to 2024, Portales's violent crime rate increased by 13.4%, and the property crime rate increased by 47.9%.
What is the most common crime in Portales?
The most common crime type in Portales is burglary, accounting for 40.9% of all reported crimes (176 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Portales 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 Portales, NM rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.