Wheat Ridge, CO is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns an F PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 37% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Wheat Ridge, CO shows violent crime at 480.8 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 4,466.2 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 37% 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
480.8/100K violent
4466.2/100K property
+37% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Wheat Ridge, CO
Comparable rate records
Wheat Ridge's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Colorado cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Wheat Ridge's 480.8 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Fountain (481.5), Idaho Springs (476.8), Brighton (471.9), Longmont (469.3). 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.
Position in the state cohort
Wheat Ridge reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Colorado cities
At 480.8 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Wheat Ridge ranks 22 of 134 — above 112 of the 133 other Colorado cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +146.6% against the cohort median of 194.9. 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 562.8 per 100,000 in 2020 to 480.8 in 2024 (-14.6%). The highest observed value was 562.8 in 2020 and the lowest 401.8 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Wheat Ridge'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.
Wheat Ridge's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 9.3 Census sq mi, Wheat Ridge logged 151.1 property and 16.3 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Wheat Ridge's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (64% of 1,564 offenses; mix index 4,467).
Violent offenses are only 10% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (9.3 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
+7.9%
445.8 → 480.8/100K
Property Crime Rate
-2.9%
4599.8 → 4466.2/100K
Property offenses lead Wheat Ridge's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
1,412
4466.2
1711
Larceny-Theft
996
3150.4
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
221
699
-
Burglary
195
616.8
-
Arson
20
63.3
-
Violent Crime
152
480.8
352
Aggravated Assault
112
354.3
-
Rape
26
82.2
-
Robbery
14
44.3
-
Murder
0
0
-
Wheat Ridge Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Wheat Ridge 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
Wheat Ridge Police Department
Reporting agency for Wheat Ridge NIBRS-participating
Wheat Ridge Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Wheat Ridge's 1,564 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 Colorado
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Colorado cities closest to Wheat Ridge in population. Their populations run from 20,284 to 38,210, against 31,615 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Wheat Ridge reported 152 violent crimes and 1,412 property crimes, for a total of 1,564 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Wheat Ridge?
From 2023 to 2024, Wheat Ridge's violent crime rate increased by 7.9%, and the property crime rate decreased by 2.9%.
What is the most common crime in Wheat Ridge?
The most common crime type in Wheat Ridge is larceny-theft, accounting for 63.7% of all reported crimes (996 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Wheat Ridge 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 Wheat Ridge, CO rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.