Are the Tri-Cities Safe?

I think most Tri-Citians would say that yes, we live in a safe community. The latest data show that the property and violent crime rates in both Benton and Franklin counties are lower than state averages.

In fact, the Tri-Cities often score highly in rankings of the safest areas in Washington. West Richland ranked 8th in Safewise’s ranking of Washington’s Safest Cities of 2025 — and it’s made several appearances on that list over the past decade. On that same list, Richland ranked 42nd, Pasco was 45th, and Kennewick ranked 63rd.

If you’re relocating to the Tri-Cities, it makes sense to understand how safe the area is. Let’s look more at the numbers so you can decide for yourself.

Tri-Cities vs. Washington State

According to data compiled by the Benton-Franklin Trends website, Benton and Franklin Counties both have lower rates of property and violent crime than the state average. Have a look:

The graphic above shows our local counties (the orange line) with a rate of 2.9 violent crimes per 1,000 residents in 2024, compared to 3.3 for Washington state (the green line) as a whole.

The chart for property crime is similar:

Our local counties have a property crime rate of 22.9 per 1,000 residents, compared to 25.5 for the state. (The U.S. national average is shown in the black line. There’s no 2024 data there, but it was 19.2 in 2023.)

By the way, if you’re not familiar with our area, Pasco is in Franklin County, while Kennewick, Richland, and West Richland are all in Benton County.

How to Learn More About Safe Tri-Cities Neighborhoods

As a Realtor®, the Fair Housing Act prevents me from giving advice about safety in specific cities or neighborhoods. But there are a few things you can do to learn more on your own, and they won’t take too much time.

1. Call the non-emergency phone line for the police department(s) in each city you’re considering for your move. You can give a specific address, street name, or neighborhood and ask them about crime rates and types of crimes in the area.
2. If you’re considering a move to Kennewick, you can find the city’s annual crime stats here. Note that, in 2024, Kennewick saw a 16% drop in violent crime and a 2% drop in property crime.
3. The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer lets you dig down to crimes as reported by specific agencies all over the U.S. Choose Washington, then under agency you can type the names of our local police departments and/or county sheriffs.

Wrapping It Up

As you can see, data shows that our property and violent crime rates are below the state averages.

But I do encourage all my buyer clients, especially the ones who are moving to the Tri-Cities from out of town, to make a couple of phone calls and/or do some research online to get answers to their specific questions.