The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Brighton, CO
Brighton is a city of 81,500 in Adams County, about 17 miles northeast of downtown Denver · Updated November 2026
Is Brighton, CO safe?
Yes, crime in Brighton is low, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of A-. Because most US neighborhoods are safe as well, Brighton sits near the middle: safer than the neighborhoods where 42% of Americans live. Violent crime grades A- and property crime B+. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Brighton run from A+ to C+, so check the map below.
A-
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 790 of 1,000About as safe as the typical US neighborhoodi What this means
42% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Brighton as a whole, and 58% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Brighton scores 790.
Crime is concentrated in a small share of places, so most neighborhoods score high on the 0 to 1,000 scale. That is why a score in the 800s can still mean more crime than most US neighborhoods.
How to read the map: each area's color compares its crime with the people, homes and cars there, on one national scale, from green for the least crime to red for the most. Each area gets its own color, so a busy shopping center can show red while the homes beside it stay green. The interactive maps load faster on a strong connection. Compare high speed internet in Brighton, CO at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Brighton, and anyone thinking about buying or renting a home there.
Business and enterprise customers: this free map shows neighborhood areas. CrimeGrade™ business reports map crime at about 66-meter detail and estimate it for one address and type of business. See business reports
What stands out in Brighton
Vehicle theft stands out among A-graded cities. For the typical resident of an A-graded US city, the figure is 0.93 car thefts a year per 1,000 residents; Brighton has 2.6.
One weak spot: reported rape. It grades C+ in Brighton, worse than in the neighborhoods where 87% of Americans live, against A- for violent crime as a whole.
The safest and least safe parts of Brighton
Low crime is the norm across Brighton: 91% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and the rest in areas graded C. Grades across Brighton run from A+ to C+; 29% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
91%
A or B 91%C 9%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Brighton, the northwest side has the least crime and the north side the most.
Is crime going up in Brighton?
Since 2019, reported violent crime in Brighton is up 13% and property crime is down 14%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 4.2 to 4.7 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 29 to 25 (US: 18). Neither changed much from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
BrightonUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police department that serves Brighton. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Brighton
Violent, US
Property, Brighton
Property, US
2016
-9%
+4%
+20%
+15%
2017
+19%
+4%
+17%
+12%
2018
+4%
+0%
+11%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+19%
+4%
+12%
-8%
2021
-6%
+6%
+8%
-10%
2022
+0%
+5%
-1%
-6%
2023
+9%
+2%
-8%
-7%
2024
+13%
-4%
-14%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Brighton
CrimeGrade™ estimates Brighton has about 35 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, about the same as the US as a whole and 25% less than Colorado.
Overall crime
Violent crime
Property crime
Reported crimes a year, per 1,000 residents. These figures include simple assaults and vandalism, which the FBI's violent and property crime rates leave out.
Theft makes up about 43% of crime reported in Brighton. Assault is less common but costs more, because each one does more harm.
Each CrimeGrade™ compares a crime with what it affects: people for assaults and robbery, homes for burglary, parked cars for vehicle theft. Rates count crimes per 1,000 residents.
Select a crime's name to see its map above. CrimeGrade™ business reports map each crime at about 66-meter detail.
Where and when crime happens in Brighton
Brighton has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Brighton, 37% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often in parking lots and garages: 44% of them, against 31% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Stores and businesses (43%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Parking lots and garages (35%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Parking lots and garages (44%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Vandalism
Homes (30%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Aggravated assault
Homes (52%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Shares of the crimes reported to police, 2022 to 2024. Reports with no time recorded are left out of the times.
How Brighton compares with nearby cities
Brighton has less crime than 5 of its 8 nearest cities.
Two things set Brighton apart: it has 2.1% of its homes standing empty, against 7.1% nationally, and 6.0 stores and restaurants for every 1,000 residents, against 10.5 nationally. Places like that tend to report less burglary, vandalism and arson, yet burglary and vandalism run higher here than that would suggest.
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary, vandalism and arson.2.1% of homesUS: 7.1%Lower than for 95% of US city residents
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft.6.0 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Lower than for 87% of US city residents
Walk GradeBestNeighborhood's grade for getting through daily life on foot, traced along real walking routes to shops, schools and parks. Walkable places tend to report more theft and assault. 86% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.D (14 of 100)US: 21Lower than for 62% of US city residents
Show all 6
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.2.3 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Higher than for 69% of US city residents
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.28% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 66% of US city residents
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more theft and robbery.33 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Lower than for 65% of US city residents
These traits tend to go with more or less crime; none of them causes it on its own. Sources: Census job counts and housing figures, OpenStreetMap and Overture business listings, CrimeGrade™ parking estimates, NASA night-light imagery, US Forest Service tree cover, EPA transit data and BestNeighborhood's Walk Grade.
What crime costs Brighton
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Brighton about $1,128 a year per household, 6% less than the US figure of $1,205.
Cost of crime per resident, per year
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, which comes almost entirely from violent crime, the full cost comes to about $77 million a year, or $941 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$1.6 million
$20
Rape
$2.9 million
$36
Robbery
$630,000
$8
Assault
$8.6 million
$106
Burglary
$1.5 million
$18
Theft
$6.3 million
$78
Vehicle theft
$3.3 million
$41
Arson
$200,000
$3
Vandalism
$3.8 million
$46
Total
$29 million
$355
How CrimeGrade™ works
A CrimeGrade™ shows how much crime an area has compared with the rest of the country, from A+ for the least crime to F for the most. Every neighborhood in the US is graded on the same scale, so a B in Brighton means the same as a B anywhere else.
CrimeGrade™ starts from the crimes people report to police and measures each kind of crime against what it affects: people for assaults, homes for burglaries, parked cars for car thefts.
The rates on this page count crimes for every 1,000 people who live here, the way police departments report them.
Comparisons with US neighborhoods use the Census Bureau's block groups, small areas of about 1,400 residents, and count the people who live in each. The figures count crimes reported to police; many crimes, shoplifting above all, never are. Behind the grades, CrimeGrade™ tested 21,607 factors from 125 data families. For business owners, paid CrimeGrade™ location reports estimate crime at a single address for each type of business.
Where the numbers come from
Crime reports that police departments file with the FBI
State crime records and city crime data, where they are published
Published research on what crime costs victims and communities
These are estimates of reported crime for whole areas, not a record of what happened on any one street. CrimeGrade™ updates them once a year and provides them free and without guarantee. Check local sources before you rely on them for a decision.
Schools in Brighton, CO average a SchoolGrade of D: 30% of students test proficient, against 31% projected for schools like them. Overall, they don't meet expectations. See schools in Brighton on SchoolGrade
