The city of Bridgeport, located in Southwestern Connecticut is a seaport city known for being the second most populous in New England. Bridgeport offers many amenities for visitors and local residents including historic districts and access to the coastline featuring gorgeous beaches. However Bridgeport CT crime rates have had a noticeable increment since 2020. The city’s is ranked as the 83rd safest jurisdiction in Connecticut for 2019, tying with New Haven at second-to-last.

Bridgeport CT Crime Rate

With increasing crime rates and only a decrease in some crime categories Bridgeport recorded the highest amount of property and violent crimes in Connecticut’s history in 2020.

You have a 1 in 171.9 chance of being the victim of a violent crime in Bridgeport each year. That compares to a 1 in 544.7 chance statewide.

Let’s see Bridgeport crime statistics per category for both 2018 and 2019

Bridgeport Crime in 2018 and 2019

• Murders: 21 in 2018, 11 in 2019
• Rape cases: 77 in 2018, 83 in 2019
• Robberies: 565 in 2018, 365 in 2019
• Assaults: 652 in 2018, 526 in 2019
• Violent crime rate: 8.97 in 2018, 6.52 in 2019

When we look at Bridgeport CT crime rates from 2018 to 2019, there is an improvement in most categories. However when we compare the city of Bridgeport with the state of Connecticut and national crime rate, the numbers skyrocketed. In 2019, Connecticut recorded a crime rate of 2.07, while the nation recorded a crime rate of 4.0. Bridgeport’s crime rate in 2019 hit 6.52 which is a little more than 3 times Connecticut’s crime rate, and about 1.6 times higher compared to the national crime rate.

The cause for Bridgeport CT crime rate increasing could be pointed towards many factors. One being poverty. Poverty is rampant in Bridgeport, with 21.8% of residents living at or below the poverty line as of 2019. Another factor affecting the city’s high crime rate is its close proximity with New York City that’s just an hour away.

Bridgeport CT Crime Prevention Efforts

The safety of Bridgeport residents is a top concern for local law enforcement. In a common effort to keep the streets safe, local Bridgeport police, State Police, and Bridgeport residents themselves have come together to develop crime prevention programs to reduce Bridgeport CT crime rates.

In Bridgeport, there are many crime prevention efforts enacted by police and the community alike. Many of these programs are in place to establish relationships between the people and police to reduce crime in their areas. Two large prevention efforts found in Bridgeport are the Neighborhood Watch Program – Citizens Patrol, and the Neighborhood Block Watch. The two organizations involve small groups of people walking the blocks of Bridgeport to report any suspicious activity they see or hear in an effort to reduce the chances of criminal activity.

The programs also ensure residents stay up to date on crimes happening in their neighborhoods through emails, which has been accounted to a 64% decrease in residential burglaries. There are many other prevention efforts offered in Bridgeport, such as community group presentations on crime prevention, security surveys for homes, and the Business Watch program that aims to decrease crime in and around small business areas. A full list of city prevention efforts can be found here on Bridgeport’s city portal.

While Bridgeport is known to be a relatively dangerous city in terms of crime occurrences, the city is also known for working hard to keep teens and young adults steer away from crime through local programs and higher education. Local and State Police are among top advocates to reduce Bridgeport CT crime rates. They have ambitious goals with the use of new technology and most importantly they look forward to working with the community they serve.