Wauwatosa, WI carries a PlainCrime C safety grade with violent crime 41% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Wauwatosa, WI shows violent crime at 206.5 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,482.5 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 41% 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
206.5/100K violent
2482.5/100K property
-41% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Wauwatosa, WI
Comparable rate records
Wauwatosa's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Wisconsin cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Wauwatosa's 206.5 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Manitowoc (208.4), Appleton (201.6), Horicon (212.3), Whitewater (200.3). 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 143.0 per 100,000 in 2020 to 206.5 in 2024 (+44.5%). The highest observed value was 214.2 in 2022 and the lowest 143.0 in 2020. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Position in the state cohort
Wauwatosa reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Wisconsin cities
At 206.5 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Wauwatosa ranks 56 of 222 — above 166 of the 221 other Wisconsin cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +92.9% against the cohort median of 107.1. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Offense mix
The reported mix leans further toward property offenses than the state cohort
Violent offenses are 7.7% of the 1,263 Part I offenses reported in Wauwatosa for 2024, against a median of 12.1% across comparable Wisconsin cities — a gap of 4.4 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 Wauwatosa'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.
Wauwatosa's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 13.2 Census sq mi, Wauwatosa logged 88.2 property and 7.3 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Wauwatosa's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (75% of 1,263 offenses; mix index 5,784).
Violent offenses are only 8% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (13.2 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
+16.8%
176.8 → 206.5/100K
Property Crime Rate
+1.2%
2452.3 → 2482.5/100K
Property offenses lead Wauwatosa's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs WI
Property Crime
1,166
2482.5
1156.8
Larceny-Theft
943
2007.7
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
153
325.8
-
Burglary
70
149
-
Arson
2
4.3
-
Violent Crime
97
206.5
279.6
Aggravated Assault
67
142.7
-
Robbery
23
49
-
Rape
7
14.9
-
Murder
0
0
-
Wauwatosa Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Wauwatosa 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 averages
Wauwatosa Police Department
Reporting agency for Wauwatosa NIBRS-participating
Wauwatosa Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Wauwatosa's 1,263 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 Wisconsin
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Wisconsin cities closest to Wauwatosa in population. Their populations run from 38,519 to 50,893, against 46,968 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Wauwatosa reported 97 violent crimes and 1,166 property crimes, for a total of 1,263 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Wauwatosa?
From 2023 to 2024, Wauwatosa's violent crime rate increased by 16.8%, and the property crime rate increased by 1.2%.
What is the most common crime in Wauwatosa?
The most common crime type in Wauwatosa is larceny-theft, accounting for 74.7% of all reported crimes (943 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Wauwatosa 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 Wauwatosa, WI rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.