Vernon, TX is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns a D PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 26% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Vernon, TX shows violent crime at 443.1 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,968.3 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 26% 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
443.1/100K violent
1968.3/100K property
+26% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Vernon, TX
Position in the state cohort
Vernon reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Texas cities
At 443.1 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Vernon ranks 91 of 686 — above 595 of the 685 other Texas cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +147.6% 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
Vernon's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Texas cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Vernon's 443.1 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Brownfield (443.5), Pineland (442.0), Baytown (440.0), Mexia (438.1). 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 390.1 per 100,000 in 2020 to 443.1 in 2024 (+13.6%). The highest observed value was 443.1 in 2024 and the lowest 291.7 in 2023. 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 18.4% of the 234 Part I offenses reported in Vernon for 2024, against a median of 14.3% across comparable Texas cities — a gap of 4.1 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 Vernon'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.
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.
Vernon's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 7.9 Census sq mi, Vernon logged 24.2 property and 5.4 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Vernon's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (62% of 234 offenses; mix index 4,168).
Violent offenses are 18% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (7.9 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
+51.9%
291.7 → 443.1/100K
Property Crime Rate
+38.9%
1417 → 1968.3/100K
Property offenses lead Vernon's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
191
1968.3
1711
Larceny-Theft
144
1483.9
-
Burglary
27
278.2
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
20
206.1
-
Arson
1
10.3
-
Violent Crime
43
443.1
352
Aggravated Assault
28
288.5
-
Rape
13
134
-
Murder
2
20.6
-
Robbery
0
0
-
Vernon Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Vernon property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose 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
Vernon: 443 violent, 1968 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Bridge City: 113 violent, 567 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Cleveland: 484 violent, 1976 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Vidor: 226 violent, 1304 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Woodway: 123 violent, 942 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Commerce: 427 violent, 1157 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Aubrey: 366 violent, 1525 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Kaufman: 121 violent, 1485 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Navasota: 785 violent, 1772 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Vernon Police Department
Reporting agency for Vernon NIBRS-participating
Vernon Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Vernon's 234 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 Vernon in population. Their populations run from 9,425 to 9,898, against 9,704 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Vernon reported 43 violent crimes and 191 property crimes, for a total of 234 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Vernon?
From 2023 to 2024, Vernon's violent crime rate increased by 51.9%, and the property crime rate increased by 38.9%.
What is the most common crime in Vernon?
The most common crime type in Vernon is larceny-theft, accounting for 61.5% of all reported crimes (144 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: Vernon 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 Vernon, TX rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.