Crime in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
Major crime in Wauwatosa is 36% above the U.S. rate per resident: 44% lower for persons crimes and 1.5 times for property crimes. Expected major crimes are down 7.9% 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 4.2 times the U.S. rate
Expected crimes per year in Wauwatosa 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 Wauwatosa
The middle half of Wauwatosa residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 34 and 76; the typical (median) resident's is 50. The citywide figure (136) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.
- 0–5050.9%
- 50–10031.1%
- 100–20010.5%
- 200–4001.3%
- 400+6.2%
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 7.9% in a year; across Wisconsin it fell 11.2%
Change in expected crimes, with Wisconsin as a whole in gray. The past year uses the reporting agencies' year-to-date FBI data; 2031 is the model's projection.
Wauwatosa against U.S. places with 25,000 to 50,000 residents
162 of the 960 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than Wauwatosa; the middle of the group is 77. The 9 nearest in population:
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.
Wauwatosa has a higher major-crime index than 5 of its 8 nearest neighbors
The 8 nearest cities and towns we cover, by major-crime index. The closest, Elm Grove (3 mi), is 77% below Wauwatosa's rate.
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.
Questions about crime in Wauwatosa
What are the most common crimes in Wauwatosa?
By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are shoplifting (about 659 a year), other larceny (about 197 a year) and motor vehicle theft (about 76 a year). Compared with the U.S., shoplifting stands out most: 4.2 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. Wauwatosa's figures add up its 45 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.
- Wauwatosa's published incident records inform the estimate for every neighborhood.
- 5.0% 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: 48,838. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2
Full method and validation·Data sources
CrimeMetric. "Crime in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/wi/wauwatosa
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Get a free API keyNearest cities we publish
Major-crime index, U.S. = 100
- Elm Grove3 mi31
- Milwaukee3 mi190
- West Allis4 mi86
- West Milwaukee4 mi1209
- Brookfield5 mi47
- Greenfield7 mi128
- Glendale7 mi215
- New Berlin7 mi33