Forest Park is a neighborhood of 27,600 residents in Springfield, close to downtown · Updated November 2026
Is Forest Park in Springfield safe?
Forest Park is among the higher-crime places in the US: an overall CrimeGrade™ of D, with more crime than the neighborhoods where 90% of Americans live. Violent crime grades D+ and property crime D-. Springfield as a whole grades C. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Forest Park run from A to F, so check the map below.
D
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 193 of 1,000Less safe than nearly all US neighborhoodsi What this means
10% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Forest Park as a whole, and 90% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Forest Park scores 193.
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 Forest Park, Springfield, MA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Forest Park in Springfield, 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 Forest Park
Robbery at about triple the US rate. Forest Park has 2.0 robberies a year per 1,000 residents, against 0.62 nationally.
Thefts from cars happen on streets and sidewalks far more often than nationally. In Springfield as a whole, 41% of reported thefts from cars happen on streets and sidewalks, against 18% nationally.
How Forest Park compares within Springfield
In Forest Park, 15% of residents live in areas graded A or B, 12% in areas graded C and 73% in areas graded D or F. Grades across Forest Park run from A to F; 2% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
15%12%73%
A or B 15%C 12%D or F 73%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Forest Park has less crime than 7 of the 16 neighborhoods in Springfield. It covers much of the Forest Park area.
Is crime going up in Springfield?
Reported crime in Springfield as a whole has held about steady since 2019: violent crime is down 2% and property crime up 9%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 9.2 to 9.0 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 26 to 28 (US: 18). Neither changed much from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
SpringfieldUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments that serve Springfield. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Springfield
Violent, US
Property, Springfield
Property, US
2016
+14%
+4%
+26%
+15%
2017
-3%
+4%
+14%
+12%
2018
+10%
+0%
+2%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+5%
+4%
-8%
-8%
2021
+3%
+6%
-11%
-10%
2022
-5%
+5%
-9%
-6%
2023
-3%
+2%
+14%
-7%
2024
-2%
-4%
+9%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Forest Park
CrimeGrade™ estimates Forest Park has about 66 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 78% more than the US as a whole and close to Springfield 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.
The largest share of crime reported in Forest Park is assault, about 44% of the total. It also makes up the largest share of what crime costs here.
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 Springfield
The Springfield Police Department polices Forest Park; these figures cover Springfield as a whole, 2022 to 2024.
In Springfield as a whole, 69% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (69%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (38%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Theft from cars
Streets and sidewalks (41%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Vandalism
Homes (47%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Robbery
Streets and sidewalks (31%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (47%)
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 Forest Park compares with nearby neighborhoods
Forest Park has less crime than 7 of its 10 nearest neighborhoods.
Two things set Forest Park apart: it has 12 jobs for every 100 residents, against 45 for the US as a whole, and 0.2 parking-lot spaces per resident, against 2.0 nationally. Places like that tend to report less theft and robbery, yet theft and robbery run higher here than that would suggest.
Tree coverThe share of land under tree canopy where people live. Leafy neighborhoods tend to report less robbery.25% where people liveUS: 21%Higher than for 86% of residents of US city neighborhoods
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more theft and robbery.12 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Lower than for 85% of residents of US city neighborhoods
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.C+ (43 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 59% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Show all 4
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.0.2 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Lower than for 78% 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 Forest Park
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Forest Park about $2,275 a year per household, 89% more 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 $2,773 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 Forest Park 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 Forest Park, Springfield, MA average a SchoolGrade of D+: 36% of students test proficient, against 27% projected for schools like them. Overall, they greatly exceed expectations. See schools in Forest Park on SchoolGrade
