Spearfish, SD carries a PlainCrime C safety grade with violent crime 25% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Spearfish, SD shows violent crime at 263.6 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,823.2 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 25% 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
263.6/100K violent
1823.2/100K property
-25% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Spearfish, SD
Comparable rate records
Spearfish's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the South Dakota cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Spearfish's 263.6 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Mitchell (262.7), Aberdeen (267.8), Yankton (273.9), Mobridge (279.8). 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
Spearfish sits mid-pack among comparable South Dakota cities
At 263.6 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Spearfish ranks 15 of 39 — above 24 of the 38 other South Dakota cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +35.5% against the cohort median of 194.6. 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 lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 294.1 per 100,000 in 2020 to 263.6 in 2024 (-10.4%). The highest observed value was 294.1 in 2020 and the lowest 174.3 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Offense mix
The reported mix leans further toward property offenses than the state cohort
Violent offenses are 12.6% of the 285 Part I offenses reported in Spearfish for 2024, against a median of 16.0% across comparable South Dakota cities — a gap of 3.3 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 counts dominate Spearfish'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.
Spearfish's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 17.3 Census sq mi, Spearfish logged 14.4 property and 2.1 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Spearfish's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (74% of 285 offenses; mix index 5,648).
Violent offenses are only 13% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (17.3 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
+40%
188.3 → 263.6/100K
Property Crime Rate
-7.6%
1973.5 → 1823.2/100K
Property offenses lead Spearfish's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs SD
Property Crime
249
1823.2
1535.5
Larceny-Theft
211
1545
-
Burglary
23
168.4
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
15
109.8
-
Arson
0
0
-
Violent Crime
36
263.6
320
Aggravated Assault
20
146.4
-
Rape
14
102.5
-
Robbery
2
14.6
-
Murder
0
0
-
Spearfish Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Spearfish 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
Spearfish Police Department
Reporting agency for Spearfish NIBRS-participating
Spearfish Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Spearfish's 285 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 South Dakota
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the South Dakota cities closest to Spearfish in population. Their populations run from 8,055 to 15,698, against 13,657 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Spearfish at 263.6/100K violent and 1,823.2/100K property - matched below outside South Dakota (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Spearfish reported 36 violent crimes and 249 property crimes, for a total of 285 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Spearfish?
From 2023 to 2024, Spearfish's violent crime rate increased by 40%, and the property crime rate decreased by 7.6%.
What is the most common crime in Spearfish?
The most common crime type in Spearfish is larceny-theft, accounting for 74.0% of all reported crimes (211 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Spearfish 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 Spearfish, SD rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.