Guidesfrom FBI data
Which Police Department Covers My Town?
A town's crime rate belongs to the police agency that covers it, often the county sheriff. How to find that agency from the FBI's own list, with an example.
The short answer
A town with its own police department is covered by that department. A town without one is usually covered by the county sheriff's office, and in some states by the state police. The FBI's data cannot tell you which, because it records the county each agency works in, not the towns. What it can give you is the full list of agencies in your county, and from that list the answer is usually one or two candidates.
Why the question matters for a crime rate
A reported crime rate belongs to a police agency: the crimes that agency reported to the FBI, divided by the population the FBI says it serves, times 100,000. Look up the wrong agency and you get the wrong area. A sheriff's office figure usually covers the unincorporated parts of a county, not the towns inside it that have their own police. A city department's figure covers the city limits, not the suburbs around it.
How the FBI records where an agency works
Each agency in the FBI's list carries the county or counties its area touches. A city that straddles a county line is listed under both. Some agencies, mostly state and federal units, carry no county at all. That is all the geography there is: no town list, no map, no addresses.
A worked example: Washington County, Vermont
The FBI lists 14 agencies whose area touches Washington County. Beside each is how many of its twelve monthly reports for 2025 the FBI holds. There is no rate on the list, on purpose: a column of rates beside a list of places reads as a ranking, which the FBI says its data should not be used for.
| Agency | Type | Reports for 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Attorney General | Other State Agency | Reported all 12 months in 2025 |
| Barre Police Department | City | Reported all 12 months in 2025 |
| Barre Town Police Department | City | Reported all 12 months in 2025 |
| Berlin Police Department | City | Reported all 12 months in 2025 |
| Capitol Police | Other State Agency | Reported all 12 months in 2025 |
| Department of Liquor Control: Division of Enforcement and Licensing | Other State Agency | Reported 11 of 12 months in 2025 |
| Department of Motor Vehicles | Other State Agency | Reported all 12 months in 2025 |
| Fish and Wildlife Department, Law Enforcement Division | Other State Agency | Reported all 12 months in 2025 |
| Montpelier Police Department | City | Reported all 12 months in 2025 |
| Northfield Police Department | City | Reported all 12 months in 2025 |
| Secretary of State, Investigations Unit | Other State Agency | Reported all 12 months in 2025 |
| State Police: Berlin | State Police | Reported all 12 months in 2025 |
| Vermont State Police Headquarters Bureau of Criminal Investigations | State Police | Reported all 12 months in 2025 |
| Washington County Sheriff's Office | County | Reported all 12 months in 2025 |
Read the list as a set of candidates. The city departments cover their cities. The sheriff's office covers what is left. The state agencies on the list, such as the liquor control division, police one kind of activity across the state and count against a population of nobody in particular; their rows explain why the FBI gives them no population.
Pick one and the rate is on its page with the math. For Montpelier Police Department in 2025: 27 reported violent crimes for a population of 7,877.
27 ÷ 7,877 × 100,000 = 342.8
That is 342.8 reported violent crimes per 100,000 people, for the area Montpelier's own department polices and nowhere else.
Why there is no county crime rate
The agencies on the list overlap. The sheriff's office, the city departments and the state police all work inside the same county, and the FBI gives each its own population figure. Adding their crimes together would count some residents twice and leave others out, and the total would not describe any real area. So a county gets a list, and each agency keeps its own rate.
What the list leaves out
- Which agency covers a given address. The FBI's data stops at the county. For a town without its own department, the sheriff's office is the usual answer, but the data does not confirm it.
- Agencies the FBI gives no county. They are on the state's A to Z list but on no county page. Each county list says how many there are in the state.
- Crime nobody reported. Every figure on every agency page counts crimes reported to police and passed on to the FBI.
- Anything below the agency. No rate here is for a neighborhood, a street, a school or a person.
What this guide does not cover
It does not cover tribal, federal or campus agencies in any detail, and it does not say which of two agencies has the higher rate or whether any rate is high or low. The FBI discourages ranking places with its data, and CrimeTally publishes no rankings.
Find the agencies in your county
Who Polices This County lists every agency whose area touches a county, A to Z, with what each reported to the FBI and a link to its page.
Sources
This guide is for informational purposes only and is not professional advice. A reported crime rate describes what one police agency reported to the FBI. It says nothing certain about any one home, street or school.
Last reviewed: September 2026 · Against the FBI Crime Data Explorer's agency list and monthly reports, September 2026.