West Milwaukee, WI carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 178% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, West Milwaukee, WI shows violent crime at 977.4 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 21,253.1 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 178% 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
977.4/100K violent
21253.1/100K property
+178% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for West Milwaukee, WI
Position in the state cohort
West Milwaukee reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Wisconsin cities
At 977.4 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, West Milwaukee ranks 3 of 222 — above 219 of the 221 other Wisconsin cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +813.0% 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.
Comparable rate records
West Milwaukee's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Wisconsin cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to West Milwaukee's 977.4 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Hayward (730.8), Lancaster (668.2), Adams (616.2), Wisconsin Rapids (532.2). 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.
Offense mix
The reported mix leans further toward property offenses than the state cohort
Violent offenses are 4.4% of the 887 Part I offenses reported in West Milwaukee for 2024, against a median of 12.1% across comparable Wisconsin cities — a gap of 7.7 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-offense composition
Burglary and vehicle theft carry more of the property total than they do across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 78.3% of reported property offenses in West Milwaukee, against a cohort median of 88.4%. The remainder is burglary (107) and motor vehicle theft (77). 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 lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 1078.2 per 100,000 in 2020 to 977.4 in 2024 (-9.3%). The highest observed value was 1301.0 in 2022 and the lowest 677.0 in 2023. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate West Milwaukee'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.
West Milwaukee's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 1.1 Census sq mi, West Milwaukee logged 757.8 property and 34.9 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
West Milwaukee's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (75% of 887 offenses; mix index 5,833).
Violent offenses are only 4% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (1.1 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Both rates shifted (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
+44.4%
677 → 977.4/100K
Property Crime Rate
+42%
14969.9 → 21253.1/100K
Property offenses lead West Milwaukee's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs WI
vs US avg
Property Crime
848
21253.1
1156.8
1711
Larceny-Theft
664
16641.6
-
-
Burglary
107
2681.7
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
77
1929.8
-
-
Arson
2
50.1
-
-
Violent Crime
39
977.4
279.6
352
Robbery
18
451.1
-
-
Aggravated Assault
17
426.1
-
-
Rape
3
75.2
-
-
Murder
1
25.1
-
-
West Milwaukee Crime Trend (2020-2024)
West Milwaukee 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
West Milwaukee Police Department
Reporting agency for West Milwaukee NIBRS-participating
West Milwaukee Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind West Milwaukee's 887 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 West Milwaukee in population. Their populations run from 3,891 to 4,150, against 3,990 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, West Milwaukee reported 39 violent crimes and 848 property crimes, for a total of 887 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in West Milwaukee?
From 2023 to 2024, West Milwaukee's violent crime rate increased by 44.4%, and the property crime rate increased by 42%.
What is the most common crime in West Milwaukee?
The most common crime type in West Milwaukee is larceny-theft, accounting for 74.9% of all reported crimes (664 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: West Milwaukee 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 West Milwaukee, WI rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.