Sanford, NC crime: up or down?
Newest FBI monthly report: Jan 2026
Jan 2026 looks incomplete so far (reports are still coming in), so this compares Oct–Dec 2025.
Missing or partial reports to the FBI: Jan 2026. Those months are left out of every comparison.
Open Sanford on the mapThe map adds deadly crashes, plus plate-reader cameras and police surveillance technology where they are known, and lets you save the place to see what changes.
The same months in past years
- 2022160
- 2023185
- 2024219
- 2025163
Next to similar-size cities
Among the 863 city police departments serving 25,000–50,000 residents in the 51 states loaded so far: violent crime 1.7 per 1,000 residents a year (52% of them report less), property crime 21.7 per 1,000 (85% report less).
The FBI warns against ranking places with these numbers: visitors, commuters, and how each department records and reports crime all differ. Treat this as context, not a grade.
Is Sanford safe?
Crime Radar doesn't grade towns as safe or unsafe: one number can't say what a street is like, and the FBI warns against ranking places. What these reports can say is whether Sanford has more or fewer reported crimes than it usually does, and that its yearly rate is 23.4 per 1,000 residents against 21.9 across North Carolina. For one block, open it on the map.
How this works
Sanford Police Department sends monthly counts of violent and property crime to the FBI. Crime Radar compares the newest complete three months with the same months in past years, and only calls a change when it's bigger than this department's usual ups and downs. Months with missing reports are left out, so a reporting gap never looks like a safe stretch. These are totals for everywhere the department patrols, not one street.
Not every crime reaches these numbers: in the national victim survey, about 6 in 10 serious violent crimes and 3 in 10 property crimes were reported to police in 2024 (BJS).