About Crime Explorer

Our Mission

We built this site to make crime data easier to find, understand, and compare. Whether you're looking up your hometown or scoping out a new city, we want to give you a clear, trustworthy snapshot of what’s really happening. Our goal is to empower communities, policymakers, and everyday folks with transparent data — no fluff, no spin.

Where the Data Comes From

All the crime data you see here comes straight from official sources. We pull from:

• FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program
• National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)
• State and local law enforcement agencies that report to the FBI

We update data regularly and only include agencies that meet a minimum reporting standard — so while it's not perfect, it's the best available picture of crime trends across the U.S.

Understanding Our Data

All crime stats on this site come from official law enforcement agencies reporting to the FBI. That said, crime data isn’t always clean or complete — so here’s how we make sense of it:

How City Data Works

City-level stats are based on the primary law enforcement agency serving that area (usually the police department). That means when you’re viewing crime numbers for a city like Denver or Miami, you’re really looking at what their main PD reported to the FBI. We clearly label the agency name on each page so you know exactly who submitted the data.

How County Data Works

Counties usually include multiple agencies — city police, sheriffs, university departments, etc. To give you the big picture, we combine data from all law enforcement agencies within that county. We exclude agencies with missing or unusable data, and break things down over a 5-year window to smooth out gaps or reporting issues.

The Fine Print

• We skip agencies that don’t consistently report or have confusing/missing data.
• All crime rates are calculated per 100,000 residents using reported population estimates.
• Data is grouped by agency, so some smaller towns or rural areas may not be represented if their agency didn’t submit data.

We know the data isn’t perfect — but we do our best to clean, organize, and present it clearly so you can make sense of trends in your area. When in doubt, we show the source agency and explain any major limitations.