Carroll Gardens is a neighborhood of 25,500 residents in Brooklyn, close to downtown · Updated November 2026
Is Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn safe?
Carroll Gardens has more crime than most of the country: an overall CrimeGrade™ of C+, with more crime than the neighborhoods where 81% of Americans live. Violent crime grades better than property crime here, A- against D-. Brooklyn as a whole grades C-. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Carroll Gardens run from A+ to F, so check the map below.
C+
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 521 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
19% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Carroll Gardens as a whole, and 81% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Carroll Gardens scores 521.
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 Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, NY at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn, 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 Carroll Gardens
Burglaries are less common than the crime level suggests. Crime overall in Carroll Gardens runs 30% above the US rate, but burglaries run 25% below it: 1.8 a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.4 nationally.
Thefts from cars happen on streets and sidewalks far more often than nationally. In Brooklyn as a whole, 79% of reported thefts from cars happen on streets and sidewalks, against 18% nationally.
How Carroll Gardens compares within Brooklyn
Crime varies widely across Carroll Gardens: 20% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and 48% in areas graded D or F. Grades across Carroll Gardens run from A+ to F; 3% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
20%32%48%
A or B 20%C 32%D or F 48%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Carroll Gardens has less crime than 27 of the 39 neighborhoods in Brooklyn. It covers much of the Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens, and Brooklyn Heights areas.
Is crime going up in Brooklyn?
Reported crime in Brooklyn as a whole has risen since 2019: violent crime is up 15% and property crime up 58%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 5.7 to 6.6 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 15 to 23 (US: 18). Neither changed much from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
BrooklynUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments that serve Brooklyn. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Brooklyn
Violent, US
Property, Brooklyn
Property, US
2016
+1%
+4%
+1%
+15%
2017
-4%
+4%
+1%
+12%
2018
-4%
+0%
+4%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-4%
+4%
+1%
-8%
2021
+10%
+6%
+8%
-10%
2022
+28%
+5%
+44%
-6%
2023
+15%
+2%
+61%
-7%
2024
+15%
-4%
+58%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Carroll Gardens
CrimeGrade™ estimates Carroll Gardens has about 48 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 30% more than the US as a whole and close to Brooklyn as a whole.
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 41% of crime reported in Carroll Gardens. 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 Brooklyn
The New York City Police Department polices Carroll Gardens; these figures cover New York as a whole, 2022 to 2024.
In New York as a whole, 50% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (50%)
Night (midnight to 6 am)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (79%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Streets and sidewalks (79%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Streets and sidewalks (40%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Streets and sidewalks (45%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (50%)
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 Carroll Gardens compares with nearby neighborhoods
Carroll Gardens has less crime than 6 of its 10 nearest neighborhoods.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from Carroll Gardens. Beside each overall CrimeGrade™ is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer).
Compared with neighborhoods of similar size and density, Carroll Gardens is safer than 57% of them.
Walkability, tree cover and nightlife in Carroll Gardens
Two things set Carroll Gardens apart: it has a Walk Grade of A+ (95 of 100) on BestNeighborhood, against 21 for the US as a whole, and tree cover over 1% of the land where people live, against 21% nationally. Places like that tend to report more theft and assault, and they run high here.
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. 100% of residents here live in walkable areas.A+ (95 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 97% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Tree coverThe share of land under tree canopy where people live. Leafy neighborhoods tend to report less robbery.1% where people liveUS: 21%Lower than for 93% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Bars and nightlifeBars, lounges, clubs and casinos. Places with more bars tend to report more assault and robbery.1.8 per 1,000 residentsUS: 0.6Higher than for 91% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Show all 4
Transit serviceBuses and trains an hour at the evening rush. Places with busy transit tend to report more theft and robbery. BestNeighborhood's Transit Grade for Carroll Gardens: B (59 of 100).62 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 91% of residents of US city neighborhoods
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 Carroll Gardens
Crime costs Carroll Gardens about $1,032 a year per household, counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, 14% 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 $25 million a year, or $974 per resident.
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 Carroll Gardens 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
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 Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, NY average a SchoolGrade of B: 62% of students test proficient, against 56% projected for schools like them. Overall, they greatly exceed expectations. See schools in Carroll Gardens on SchoolGrade
