Crime in Watertown, South Dakota
Major crime in Watertown is 47% below the U.S. rate per resident: 39% lower for persons crimes and 49% lower for property crimes. Expected major crimes are down 7.6% 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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Drugs and alcohol stands out most, at 2.1 times the U.S. rate
Expected crimes per year in Watertown 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 Watertown
The middle half of Watertown residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 18 and 63; the typical (median) resident's is 33. The citywide figure (53) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.
- 0–5064.0%
- 50–10030.3%
- 100–2001.9%
- 200–4003.8%
- 400+0.0%
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 7.6% in a year; across South Dakota it fell 7.4%
Change in expected crimes, with South Dakota as a whole in gray. The past year uses the reporting agencies' year-to-date FBI data; 2031 is the model's projection.
Watertown against U.S. places with 10,000 to 25,000 residents
1,417 of the 2,149 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than Watertown; the middle of the group is 72. The 9 nearest in population:
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.
Watertown 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, Ortonville (44 mi), is 28% above Watertown's rate.
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.
Questions about crime in Watertown
What are the most common crimes in Watertown?
By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are other larceny (about 66 a year), shoplifting (about 63 a year) and aggravated assault (about 30 a year). Compared with the U.S., drugs and alcohol stands out most: 2.1 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. Watertown's figures add up its 18 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.
- Watertown has no published incident records in our data, so its estimate relies on agency totals and neighborhood characteristics.
- 0.0% 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: 23,836. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2
Full method and validation·Data sources
CrimeMetric. "Crime in Watertown, South Dakota." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/sd/watertown
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Major-crime index, U.S. = 100
- Ortonville, MN44 mi68
- Brookings45 mi52
- Sisseton52 mi176
- Madison62 mi56
- Flandreau65 mi46
- Huron66 mi87
- Redfield69 mi22
- Montevideo, MN69 mi26