Crime in West Des Moines, Iowa
Major crime in West Des Moines is 20% below the U.S. rate per resident: 41% lower for persons crimes and 15% lower for property crimes. Expected major crimes are down 15.5% from a year earlier.
Modeled estimates per resident, not counts of incidents. How we calculated this
Index: crimes per resident compared with the U.S., where 100 is the U.S. rate and 200 is twice it.
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Shoplifting stands out most, at 2.0 times the U.S. rate
Expected crimes per year in West Des Moines for each type, and the index against the U.S. rate per resident.
Citywide indexWhere the middle half of residents live
Property crimes
Social disorder
How crime varies across West Des Moines
The middle half of West Des Moines residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 24 and 73; the typical (median) resident's is 39. The citywide figure (80) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.
- 0–5062.1%
- 50–10022.5%
- 100–2007.3%
- 200–4007.4%
- 400+0.7%
Share of residents by the index of their census block group, a neighborhood of roughly 600 to 3,000 people.
Highest on weekend daytimes
Major-crime index by time of week, against the U.S. rate for the same hours.
Major crime fell 15.5% in a year; across Iowa it fell 10.5%
Change in expected crimes, with Iowa as a whole in gray. The past year uses the reporting agencies' year-to-date FBI data; 2031 is the model's projection.
West Des Moines against U.S. places with 50,000 to 100,000 residents
321 of the 540 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than West Des Moines; the middle of the group is 92. The 9 nearest in population:
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.
West Des Moines has a higher major-crime index than 6 of its 8 nearest neighbors
The 8 nearest cities and towns we cover, by major-crime index. The closest, Clive (3 mi), is 23% below West Des Moines's rate.
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.
Questions about crime in West Des Moines
What are the most common crimes in West Des Moines?
By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are shoplifting (about 496 a year), other larceny (about 192 a year) and theft from vehicle (about 123 a year). Compared with the U.S., shoplifting stands out most: 2.0 times the U.S. rate per resident.
How we calculated this
Each police agency's crimes, as reported to the FBI, are spread across the census block groups it serves using population, jobs, points of interest and, where available, local incident records. West Des Moines's figures add up its 43 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.
- West Des Moines's published incident records inform the estimate for every neighborhood.
- 58.1% of residents live in block groups whose estimate has high confidence (80% interval within about 5x).
- Rates are per resident, so places where many people work or visit but few live, such as downtowns, airports and stadiums, can read high.
- Disorderly conduct and trespassing are modeled, because the FBI records them only through arrests.
- Residents: 76,925. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2
Full method and validation·Data sources
CrimeMetric. "Crime in West Des Moines, Iowa." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/ia/west-des-moines
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Get a free API keyNearest cities we publish
Major-crime index, U.S. = 100
- Clive3 mi62
- Windsor Heights4 mi236
- Urbandale5 mi40
- Waukee5 mi31
- Johnston8 mi41
- Norwalk8 mi18
- Des Moines8 mi164
- Grimes8 mi54