Is Watertown, MA, a Safe Place to Live? A Look at Crime Rates, Crime Map, and Statistics

Ask anyone who lives in Watertown and they’ll tell you the vibe is more neighborhood coffee‐run than crime drama.

The City of Watertown sits just a few miles west of Boston, and the median household income in Watertown tops $123,422 according to the U.S. Census QuickFacts. Folks still lock the door and keep an eye on porch deliveries, but most evenings the loudest disturbance is a Red Sox game on TV.

If you’re browsing homes for sale in Watertown, MA, safety usually isn’t the deal-breaker—location and price are.

Current crime data from CrimeGrade shows a total crime rate of 24.5 crimes per 1,000 residents CrimeGrade. That breaks down to 12.34 property crimes and 2.80 violent crimes per 1,000.

The same dashboard tallies every incident—larceny, burglary, vehicle theft, assault—giving residents of Watertown a clear crime breakdown without sugarcoating.

The numbers translate to a crime per capita in Watertown that many analysts call “average-safe” for an average US city.

When you line those figures up against the national average—roughly 19.2 property and 3.6 violent crimes per 1,000—Watertown posts higher crime rates on the property side and slightly lower than the national mark for violence.

In practical terms, your chance of becoming a victim of any offense here is about 1 in 41; the chance of being a victim of a property crime is 1 in 76, and the odds of violent injury sit near 1 in 735 NeighborhoodScout.

Those are respectable stats for a dense suburb hugging a major city.

Zoom out to Middlesex County and you’ll see similar patterns: a gentle downward slope in burglaries since 2017, minor upticks in catalytic-converter theft, and a violent crime rate that stays well below past peaks.

County analysts who compare crime statistics say Watertown often sits on the safer half of their spreadsheets, especially when adjusted for population size for crime.

Property crime in Watertown drives most police calls. Theft—grab-and-dash phone snatches, unlocked-car rummaging—makes up the biggest slice.

CrimeGrade lists 8.9 thefts, 2.2 burglaries, and 1.1 vehicle thefts per 1,000 residents, figures that push the overall crime rate slightly above ideal but nowhere near panic level.

Even so, the victim of a property crime tag stings, so locals invest in porch cameras and bike locks.

Violent crime in Watertown is less headline-worthy. Assaults hover around 1.9 per 1,000, robberies at 0.3, and homicides are practically nonexistent, giving the town a violent crime rate graded “C+” by CrimeGrade.

That still means a handful of late-night bar scuffles, but the crime rates for Watertown under this category remain less than the national average in most years.

Fraud, vandalism, drug offenses, and identity theft add another 9.3 incidents per 1,000. These detailed crime rates stack up quietly in police logs but rarely spill onto front-page news.

Together they nudge the total crime figure, yet they’re part of the intangible cost of crime that statistical models struggle to price.

Over the past decade, analysts who understand crime trends note that Watertown dodged the sharp spikes some surrounding cities saw. Year-to-year swings stay within a narrow band, proof that the town’s size for crime is stable.

Pull up the interactive Watertown Town crime map on CrimeGrade and you’ll see a familiar heat-map palette.

Crime Grade's crime map highlights the safest areas in Watertown in deep green and the dangerous in red. The map highlights the safest areas mostly in the northwest cul-de-sacs, while Arsenal Street’s shopping corridor shows orange shading because heavy foot traffic means you’ll see the most incidents there.

When folks ask about dangerous places in Watertown, locals point to busy retail blocks and commuter lots rather than gloomy back alleys. These parts of Watertown aren’t war zones; they just draw crowds, so the crime maps and rates flag them.

Remember, a red blotch on the map often reflects visitor volume.

CrimeGrade’s heat map paints the north-side neighborhoods in deep green, and that’s not just pretty shading.

On most police logs, West End and the adjoining Brigham Historic District record the fewest calls per resident all year. Those streets—think Orchard, Common, and the little lanes running toward Waltham—see about one reported incident a month, putting them on the A-minus rung for overall safety.

Drill in further, and Bemis looks even better. CrimeGrade ranks Bemis in the 81st percentile for safety, with a crime rate of just 22.9 per 1,000 residents and odds of 1-in-49 of anything happening in its northwest pocket. Walk Pleasant Street at dusk and you’ll see joggers, not patrol cars.

Just east of there, Coolidge Square earns solid B-grades. It’s busier—Arsenal Yards traffic bumps up the numbers—but most calls are shoplifting or bike thefts, not violence.

Farther south, Watertown Square itself sits in the map’s yellow band: average for property incidents, still low for violent ones.

Taken together, locals steer first-time buyers toward the West End’s leafy grid, Bemis’s riverside streets near the Charles, and Brigham’s historic blocks abutting Belmont. They’re the spots where porch lights matter more than alarm systems, and comfort after dark comes standard with the ZIP code. 

Cambridge, with its bustling nightlife, posts higher than the national average property numbers, pushing it below Watertown on safety lists.

Belmont, just west, regularly earns “A” grades, making it the city to be the safest in the neighborhood league.

Newton slots between, while Revere to the north carries higher crime rates.

These crime grades for cities close to Watertown vary, but Watertown usually lands in the reliable middle—cities but less safe than leafy Belmont, yet calmer than Cambridge’s Porter Square bustle. Analysts who compare cities similar to Watertown say the town’s overall crime rate is shaped more by commuter traffic than by resident mischief.

CrimeGrade counts about 24.5 crimes per 1,000 residents, translating to roughly a 1-in-41 chance of any incident..

NeighborhoodScout trims that to 1 in 76 for property crime and 1 in 735 for violent crime, while CrimeGrade’s own breakdown lands at 1 in 75–94 for property and 1 in 357 for violence. 

Bottom line: porch pirates pose the bigger threat, and the annual hit averages about $350 per resident, well under the national bite.

Simple habits keep the rate of crime in Watertown steady.

Lock the bike, leave lights on, clear packages quickly, and park under street lamps. Those steps help make sure the crime to residents stays in check and prevent you from becoming the next victim of crime in Watertown.

Forecast models suggest no major shocks.

Unless a regional economic downturn or policing overhaul changes the landscape, the rates and maps for Watertown should hover near current levels, keeping the town Massachusetts state average and safer for violence and only a shade less safe than the Massachusetts mean on property loss.

For most individual Watertown home-shoppers, safety questions boil down to “Is it safe to walk the dog at 10 p.m.?” and “Will my kid’s bike still be on the porch in the morning?” The crime maps and rates say yes, as long as common sense prevails. Mix in top schools, quick commutes, and riverfront greenways, and you get a suburb that balances liveliness with relative security.

For anyone weighing safety alongside commute times and school scores, Watertown’s total crime rate won’t scare you off—and that makes it one of the better places to live inside Route 128.

Watertown posts a slightly higher crime rate for property offenses but is safer than the Massachusetts state mean for violent incidents, leaving the blended number close to parity.

Commercial corridors along Arsenal and Mount Auburn show higher crime rates on the heat map because they draw shoppers; the north part of the city logs the fewest police calls.

The total cost of crime is pegged at $315k, and the intangible cost of crime pushes the estimate past $1 million, but that still ranks Watertown as economical to police compared with many nearby cities.

Yes - CrimeGrade.org keeps an interactive map and data table on local crime. Their latest snapshot gives Watertown a C+ overall, putting the town squarely in the middle of the pack.