Rockdale, TX is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns an F PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 130% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Rockdale, TX shows violent crime at 810.4 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 986.6 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 130% 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
810.4/100K violent
986.6/100K property
+130% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Rockdale, TX
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 381.6 per 100,000 in 2020 to 810.4 in 2024 (+112.4%). The highest observed value was 810.4 in 2024 and the lowest 381.6 in 2020. 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 45.1% of the 102 Part I offenses reported in Rockdale for 2024, against a median of 14.3% across comparable Texas cities — a gap of 30.8 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.
Position in the state cohort
Rockdale reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Texas cities
At 810.4 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Rockdale ranks 20 of 686 — above 666 of the 685 other Texas cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +352.9% against the cohort median of 178.9. 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
Rockdale's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Texas cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Rockdale's 810.4 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Lubbock (821.0), Kirby (824.7), Los Fresnos (793.9), Cuero (826.9). 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.
Rockdale's FBI UCR Table 8 municipal row keeps violent and property totals in a closer balance. Per-100,000 rates use the reporting-year population on that row; incomplete reporters stay out of rate rankings. A citywide figure rarely describes any single neighbourhood inside the municipal boundary.
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.
Rockdale's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 4.3 Census sq mi, Rockdale logged 13.1 property and 10.7 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Rockdale leans on larceny-theft at 40% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,106.
Violent offenses are 45% of the municipal total - a violence-heavy book for a small city.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (4.3 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
+52.1%
532.8 → 810.4/100K
Property Crime Rate
+11.1%
887.9 → 986.6/100K
Rockdale's 2024 offense mix (violent and property)
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs TX
Property Crime
56
986.6
1711
2058.2
Larceny-Theft
41
722.3
-
-
Burglary
9
158.6
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
6
105.7
-
-
Arson
0
0
-
-
Violent Crime
46
810.4
352
394.7
Aggravated Assault
37
651.9
-
-
Rape
8
140.9
-
-
Murder
1
17.6
-
-
Robbery
0
0
-
-
Rockdale Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Rockdale violent crime rate trend
Secondary series · rose · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
Violent crime rate (2024)
810.4/100K↑52.1%vs 2023
Rockdale 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 averagesRead the chart as a list
Rockdale: 810 violent, 987 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Elsa: 298 violent, 3017 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Littlefield: 245 violent, 911 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Windcrest: 332 violent, 11183 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Slaton: 516 violent, 1157 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Marlin: 232 violent, 964 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Livingston: 469 violent, 3303 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Wake Village: 156 violent, 885 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Cameron: 233 violent, 914 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Rockdale Police Department
Reporting agency for Rockdale NIBRS-participating
Rockdale Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Rockdale's 102 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 Texas
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Texas cities closest to Rockdale in population. Their populations run from 5,579 to 5,766, against 5,676 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Rockdale reported 46 violent crimes and 56 property crimes, for a total of 102 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Rockdale?
From 2023 to 2024, Rockdale's violent crime rate increased by 52.1%, and the property crime rate increased by 11.1%.
What is the most common crime in Rockdale?
The most common crime type in Rockdale is larceny-theft, accounting for 40.2% of all reported crimes (41 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: Rockdale 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 Rockdale, TX rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.