Crime in Potomac, Maryland
Major crime in Potomac is 25% below the U.S. rate per resident: 78% lower for persons crimes and 13% lower for property crimes. Expected major crimes are down 14.5% 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.
Check an address in Potomac
Shoplifting stands out most, at 1.9 times the U.S. rate
Expected crimes per year in Potomac 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 Potomac
The middle half of Potomac residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 20 and 51; the typical (median) resident's is 23. The citywide figure (76) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.
- 0–5072.8%
- 50–10021.9%
- 100–2000.0%
- 200–4002.8%
- 400+2.6%
Share of residents by the index of their census block group, a neighborhood of roughly 600 to 3,000 people.
Highest on weeknights
Major-crime index by time of week, against the U.S. rate for the same hours.
Major crime fell 14.5% in a year; across Maryland it fell 10.0%
Change in expected crimes, with Maryland as a whole in gray. The past year uses the reporting agencies' year-to-date FBI data; 2031 is the model's projection.
Potomac against U.S. places with 25,000 to 50,000 residents
490 of the 960 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than Potomac; the middle of the group is 77. The 9 nearest in population:
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.
Potomac has a higher major-crime index than 4 of its 8 nearest neighbors
The 8 nearest cities and towns we cover, by major-crime index. The closest, North Bethesda (4 mi), is 1.5 times Potomac's rate.
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.
Questions about crime in Potomac
What are the most common crimes in Potomac?
By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are shoplifting (about 280 a year), theft from vehicle (about 110 a year) and other larceny (about 104 a year). Compared with the U.S., shoplifting stands out most: 1.9 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. Potomac's figures add up its 28 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.
- Potomac's published incident records inform the estimate for every neighborhood.
- 8.3% 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: 46,274. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2
Full method and validation·Data sources
CrimeMetric. "Crime in Potomac, Maryland." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/md/potomac
Use these numbers in your product
Any U.S. address by API or MCP, free for 10,000 lookups a month.
Get a free API keyNearest cities we publish
Major-crime index, U.S. = 100
- North Bethesda4 mi115
- Rockville4 mi73
- Bethesda5 mi82
- North Kensington6 mi63
- Chevy Chase6 mi68
- McLean, VA7 mi45
- Friendship Heights Village7 mi125
- Wheaton7 mi149