People moving to a town of 20,000 ask about crime early, and the honest answer is a set of numbers. This page reports what the Durango Police Department told the state in 2024, divides by population to get rates, and sets them next to the Colorado totals. We add no verdict. Counts are small enough that one bad month moves a line, so read the trend and the limits as well as the totals.
What does Durango's crime data show?
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) publishes crime counts by agency on its Colorado Crime Stats site. For 2024, the Durango Police Department's violent crime page lists 69 violent crime cases, with a clearance rate of 79.71%. CBI counts murder, non-consensual sex offenses, aggravated assault and robbery in that figure. Here is how the 69 break down and how the five-year trend moved:
| Violent crime, Durango PD | Count in 2024 | Cleared |
|---|---|---|
| Murder | 0 | 0 |
| Non-consensual sex offenses | 6 | 1 |
| Aggravated assault | 60 | 52 |
| Robbery | 3 | 2 |
| Year | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crime cases | 69 | 53 | 56 | 80 | 69 |
How does that compare with Colorado?
To compare a town with a state, you need a rate. We divided each count by the population and multiplied by 100,000. For Durango we used the State Demography Office's 2024 estimate of 19,756 residents. For Colorado we used its 2024 estimate of 5,956,729. The state counts come from the CBI statewide violent crime page and the statewide property crime page.
| 2024 cases | Durango PD count | Durango per 100,000 | Colorado count | Colorado per 100,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crime | 69 | 349 | 31,825 | 534 |
| Aggravated assault | 60 | 304 | 21,407 | 359 |
| Larceny (theft) | 606 | 3,067 | 111,085 | 1,865 |
| Burglary | 56 | 284 | 20,443 | 343 |
| Motor vehicle theft | 31 | 157 | 30,536 | 513 |
Read across the rows and the picture is mixed. Durango's violent crime, burglary and vehicle theft rates came in below the statewide rates. Its theft rate came in above. Theft is the biggest category by far, and the CBI property crime page shows 606 larceny cases in 2024 with a 19.14% clearance rate.
How have theft, burglary and car theft changed?
The same CBI page gives five-year counts for Durango PD:
- Larceny: 794 in 2020, 524 in 2021, 545 in 2022, 500 in 2023 and 606 in 2024
- Burglary: 114, 59, 49, 45 and 56 over the same years
- Motor vehicle theft: 56, 36, 33, 23 and 31
- Fraud: 111, 128, 107, 105 and 88
The larceny page also counts victims. Of the 614 listed for 2024, 392 were individuals and 203 were businesses. Burglary cleared at 8.93%, motor vehicle theft at 6.45% and fraud at 7.95%.
What are the limits of these numbers?
Several caveats matter before you quote a rate. Rates divide by residents, but Durango also hosts visitors, students and commuters who are not in the denominator. Counts reflect crimes reported and recorded, not every incident. A violent crime count of 69 is small, so a swing of a dozen cases changes the rate by about 60 per 100,000. And the state totals depend on which agencies sent data. CBI publishes a list of agencies missing data for 2024 on each page, so the statewide figure may be a little low.
CBI reports a clearance rate for each category. For violent crime it shows 45.03% statewide and 79.71% for Durango PD. Clearance rates swing with small counts too, so treat that gap as one more number and not a ranking.
Where can you see more?
The City of Durango posts monthly statistics on its crime statistics page, built from the Uniform Crime Reporting and National Incident-Based Reporting systems. The FBI shows agency submissions on its Crime Data Explorer. For a non-emergency, the city lists dispatch at 970-385-2900, and 911 is for emergencies (City of Durango).
Planning a move? Our guide to moving to Durango has the broader picture. Other local risks that residents plan for are covered in the wildfire preparedness guide and living with bears in Durango.