The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Poughkeepsie, NY
The Poughkeepsie metro area, the 85th-largest in the US, is home to 704,800 residents · Updated November 2026
Is Poughkeepsie, NY safe?
Yes. Crime is low across most of the US, and lower still in the Poughkeepsie area: an overall CrimeGrade™ of A, safer than the neighborhoods where 67% of Americans live. Violent and property crime both grade A here. The city of Poughkeepsie itself grades A-. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within the Poughkeepsie area run from A+ to F, so check the map or the safest and least safe places below.
A
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 902 of 1,000Safer than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
67% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than the Poughkeepsie area as a whole, and 33% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. The Poughkeepsie area scores 902.
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 Poughkeepsie, NY at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in the Poughkeepsie area, 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 the Poughkeepsie area
Vehicle theft runs low. The Poughkeepsie area has 0.36 car thefts a year per 1,000 residents, a small fraction of the US rate of 2.7.
The safest and most dangerous places in the Poughkeepsie area
Most of the Poughkeepsie area grades well: 94% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and 2% in areas graded D or F. Grades across the Poughkeepsie area run from A+ to F; 80% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
94%
A or B 94%C 4%D or F 2%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Cities and towns in the Poughkeepsie metro area with at least 1,000 residents. Ranked by overall CrimeGrade™; beside each grade is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer), and the other numbers are residents.
Across the area, the Fishkill, Pawling, and Stormville areas have the least crime and the Wallkill area the most.
Is crime going up in the Poughkeepsie area?
Reported crime in the Poughkeepsie area has fallen since 2019: violent crime is down 32% and property crime down 24%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 1.9 to 1.3 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 11 to 8.4 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, violent crime fell 26% and property crime fell 26%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
Poughkeepsie areaUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments across the Poughkeepsie area. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Poughkeepsie area
Violent, US
Property, Poughkeepsie area
Property, US
2016
+18%
+4%
+34%
+15%
2017
+14%
+4%
+26%
+12%
2018
+3%
+0%
+10%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-6%
+4%
-4%
-8%
2021
-23%
+6%
-21%
-10%
2022
-1%
+5%
-5%
-6%
2023
-8%
+2%
+3%
-7%
2024
-32%
-4%
-24%
-15%
Crime rates and types in the Poughkeepsie area
CrimeGrade™ estimates the Poughkeepsie area has about 21 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 42% less than the US as a whole and 46% less than New York.
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 42% of crime reported in the Poughkeepsie area. 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.
How the Poughkeepsie area compares with nearby metro areas
The Poughkeepsie area has the least crime of its 10 nearest metro areas.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from the Poughkeepsie area. Beside each overall CrimeGrade™ is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer).
Compared with metro areas of similar size and density, the Poughkeepsie area is safer than 97% of them.
Night lighting, transit and empty homes in the Poughkeepsie area
Two things set the Poughkeepsie area apart: it has 53% of the land where people live lit at night, against 78% nationally, and 4.8% of its homes standing empty, against 7.1% nationally. Places like that tend to report less theft and vandalism, and they run low here.
Lit at nightSatellite images show which neighborhoods are lit at night, a sign of busy streets and businesses. Brightly lit places tend to report more theft and vandalism.53% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 96% of Americans in metro areas
Transit serviceBuses and trains an hour at the evening rush. Places with busy transit tend to report more robbery. BestNeighborhood's Transit Grade for the Poughkeepsie area: D- (8 of 100).under 1 trip an hourUS: noneLower than for 85% of Americans in metro areas
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary.4.8% of homesUS: 7.1%Lower than for 81% of Americans in metro areas
Show all 4
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.19% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 56% of Americans in metro areas
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 the Poughkeepsie area
Crime costs the Poughkeepsie area about $598 a year per household, counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, 50% less than the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $148 million a year.
Cost of crime per resident, per year
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, which comes almost entirely from violent crime, the full cost rises to about $413 million a year, or $586 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$17 million
$24
Rape
$11 million
$15
Robbery
$5.9 million
$8
Assault
$57 million
$81
Burglary
$5.4 million
$8
Theft
$33 million
$47
Vehicle theft
$3.9 million
$6
Arson
$790,000
$1
Vandalism
$14 million
$20
Total
$148 million
$210
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 the Poughkeepsie area 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. These figures cover the whole Poughkeepsie metro area. 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 the Poughkeepsie area average a SchoolGrade of B-: 57% of students test proficient, against 58% projected for schools like them. Overall, they don't meet expectations. See schools in the Poughkeepsie area on SchoolGrade
