Southwestern Outer Drive is a neighborhood of 20,000 residents in Dearborn, about 5 miles southwest of downtown · Updated November 2026
Is Southwestern Outer Drive in Dearborn safe?
Yes, crime in Southwestern Outer Drive is low, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of A-. Because most US neighborhoods are safe as well, Southwestern Outer Drive sits near the middle: safer than the neighborhoods where 44% of Americans live. Violent and property crime both grade A- here. Dearborn as a whole grades A-. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Southwestern Outer Drive run from A to B, so check the map below.
A-
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 807 of 1,000About as safe as the typical US neighborhoodi What this means
44% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Southwestern Outer Drive as a whole, and 56% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Southwestern Outer Drive scores 807.
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 Southwestern Outer Drive, Dearborn, MI at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Southwestern Outer Drive in Dearborn, 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 Southwestern Outer Drive
Car thefts run high for an A-graded neighborhood. Southwestern Outer Drive has 3.3 car thefts a year per 1,000 residents; for the typical resident of an A-graded US neighborhood, the figure is 1.5.
Thefts and acts of vandalism both run low. In Southwestern Outer Drive, each runs at less than half the US rate: 5.0 thefts and 1.7 acts of vandalism a year per 1,000 residents, against 13.1 and 5.5 nationally.
How Southwestern Outer Drive compares within Dearborn
Every part of Southwestern Outer Drive where people live grades A or B on the national scale. Grades across Southwestern Outer Drive run from A to B; 31% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
100%
A or B 100%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Southwestern Outer Drive has less crime than 1 of the 5 neighborhoods in Dearborn. It covers much of the Southwestern Outer Drive and West Downtown Dearborn areas and the Snow Woods area.
Is crime going up in Dearborn?
Reported crime in Dearborn as a whole has fallen since 2019: violent crime is down 11% and property crime down 12%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 3.2 to 2.9 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 22 to 20 (US: 18). Neither changed much from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
DearbornUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments that serve Dearborn. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Dearborn
Violent, US
Property, Dearborn
Property, US
2016
+13%
+4%
+31%
+15%
2017
-16%
+4%
+7%
+12%
2018
+3%
+0%
-11%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-20%
+4%
-32%
-8%
2021
-1%
+6%
-28%
-10%
2022
-12%
+5%
-14%
-6%
2023
-6%
+2%
-3%
-7%
2024
-11%
-4%
-12%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Southwestern Outer Drive
CrimeGrade™ estimates Southwestern Outer Drive has about 21 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 43% less than the US as a whole and 40% less than Dearborn 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.
Assault is the most common crime in Southwestern Outer Drive, about 46% of everything reported, and it also accounts for 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 Dearborn
The Dearborn Police Department polices Southwestern Outer Drive; these figures cover Dearborn as a whole, 2022 to 2024.
In Dearborn as a whole, 48% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often in parking lots and garages: 37% of them, against 31% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (48%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Parking lots and garages (42%)
Night (midnight to 6 am)
Theft from cars
Parking lots and garages (37%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Homes (33%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (49%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Aggravated assault
Streets and sidewalks (32%)
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 Southwestern Outer Drive compares with nearby neighborhoods
Southwestern Outer Drive has less crime than 7 of its 10 nearest neighborhoods.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from Southwestern Outer Drive. Beside each overall CrimeGrade™ is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer).
Compared with neighborhoods of similar size and density, Southwestern Outer Drive is safer than 75% of them.
Transit, density and walkability in Southwestern Outer Drive
Two things set Southwestern Outer Drive apart: it has 11% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally, and 4.0 stores and restaurants for every 1,000 residents, against 10.5 nationally. Places like that tend to report less robbery and car theft, yet car theft runs higher here than that would suggest.
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 Southwestern Outer Drive: D- (10 of 100).NoneUS: noneLower than for 95% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.11% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 89% 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+ (40 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 57% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Show all 4
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft and car theft.4.0 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Lower than for 86% 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 Southwestern Outer Drive
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Southwestern Outer Drive about $556 a year per household, 54% 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 $14 million a year, or $678 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 Southwestern Outer Drive 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 Southwestern Outer Drive, Dearborn, MI average a SchoolGrade of D: 32% of students test proficient, against 27% projected for schools like them. Overall, they exceed expectations. See schools in Southwestern Outer Drive on SchoolGrade
