People moving to Forney from larger DFW suburbs often ask the same question first: is this place actually safe, or does the low price tag signal something the listings don't say out loud? The honest answer is that Forney's crime numbers are genuinely good — not just good for a fast-growing exurb, but good by any reasonable comparison. A city of 41,658 residents in Kaufman County, sitting about 36 minutes to Dallas, TX along US-80, Forney has absorbed years of explosive growth without the crime increases that tend to follow boomtowns. That's a meaningful distinction, and the data backs it up.
The context matters here: Kaufman County is the fastest-growing county in Texas and the second fastest-growing in the United States, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released in 2025. Growth at that pace strains every city service, and public safety is no exception. What separates Forney from many similarly expanding cities is that local leaders have moved proactively — through both departmental hiring and a voter-approved funding mechanism — to keep staffing levels and crime response capacity in step with the population. The result, as of summer 2025, is a police chief reporting that crime had gone down over the prior four years despite the surge in residents.
For prospective residents, the practical picture is straightforward: violent crime is low, property crime is well below state norms, and residents consistently describe the city as quiet and safe — a sentiment that aligns with what the official crime statistics show. That combination of resident confidence and hard numbers is a rare and telling one. It doesn't mean every corner of Forney is identical, and the northwest versus southeast pattern is worth understanding before you settle on a neighborhood.
This guide breaks down Forney's crime rates against state and national benchmarks, maps the safety picture across specific neighborhoods, explains what the city is actively doing to stay ahead of growth-driven pressure, identifies the real public safety challenge that the crime statistics alone don't capture, and gives you the practical framework for evaluating safety when choosing where in Forney to land.
Forney's Crime Rates vs. Texas and the Nation
Forney carries a violent crime rate of 2 per 1,000 residents and a property crime rate of 8 per 1,000 residents, according to Bureau of Justice Statistics, Crime Known to Law Enforcement, 2024 (tables 2 and 3). Both figures sit well below where most Texas cities land.
The state violent crime average is 4 per 1,000 — twice Forney's rate. The state property crime average is 20.7 per 1,000 — more than two and a half times Forney's figure. The national violent crime average is 3.7 per 1,000 and the national property crime average is 18.4 per 1,000, both from the same Bureau of Justice Statistics reporting series. Forney tracks below all four benchmarks.
One way to make those numbers tangible: CrimeGrade.org estimates Forney's overall crime cost per resident at approximately $329 per year — roughly $135 less than the national average and $226 less than the Texas state average. That's a concrete way of saying the city's crime burden is lighter than almost anywhere else in the state at this population size.
What the raw figures also can't show is the trajectory: Police Chief Carrie White reported in summer 2025 that crime in Forney had gone down over the prior four years, a period that also saw the city's population grow sharply. Falling crime during a growth surge is not a given — it's an outcome that requires deliberate investment, and Forney has made it.
Where in Forney Is Safer — and Where to Look More Closely
Forney is not uniformly identical across its footprint, and the directional pattern is worth knowing before you narrow down a neighborhood. Crime analytics data from CrimeGrade.org (July 2026) shows the southeast portion of the city records the lowest violent crime rates, while the northwest reports the highest concentration of incidents in raw count terms. Southern sections of Forney also trend toward lower overall crime risk.
That northwest-to-southeast gradient aligns roughly with the city's development timeline. The older commercial corridors and higher-traffic arterials tend to cluster in the northwest, while the master-planned residential communities that define Forney's growth story are concentrated further south and east. This isn't a sharp divide — Forney is a small enough city that no part of it registers as dangerous by any objective standard — but it's a real pattern that residents and longtime locals recognize.
Neighborhood Safety Snapshot
Among Forney's established neighborhoods, Windmill Farms has received top safety grades from independent crime analytics platforms, consistent with the city's broader below-average crime profile. As one of the city's original master-planned communities, it sits in an area that has seen stable residential character for longer than most of the newer subdivisions. For more on how Windmill Farms compares to Devonshire, Clements Ranch, Grayhawk, Skyline Estates, and the newer Overland Grove on dimensions beyond safety, see the best neighborhoods in Forney breakdown.
Travis Ranch, positioned in the southern part of the city, fits the southern-trending lower-risk pattern the citywide data describes. The newer master-planned communities — Clements Ranch, Grayhawk, Skyline Estates — are predominantly residential and newer construction, which typically correlates with lower property crime exposure simply because the commercial density that attracts opportunistic theft hasn't accumulated around them yet.
The practical advice for anyone evaluating a specific street or subdivision: check CrimeGrade.org or a similar analytics tool at the specific address level, not just the city level. The citywide numbers are strong, but within any city of 41,658, micro-level patterns exist. The southeast and south of Forney represent the safest quadrants by the available data.
Best for: Families prioritizing the lowest crime exposure should focus on southeast Forney and the established master-planned communities; the northwest warrants a closer look at street-level data before committing.
What Forney Is Doing About Growth-Driven Safety Pressure
The most consequential public safety story in Forney right now isn't the current crime rate — it's the infrastructure being built to keep that rate from drifting upward as the city continues to grow. The mechanism is a Crime Control and Prevention District, or CCPD, which Forney voters approved through Proposition A in November 2024.
The CCPD reallocates 0.25% of the existing local sales tax to fund police personnel, technology, equipment, and public safety programs. Critically, it does this without raising the overall tax rate for residents — the money is redirected from within the existing sales tax structure rather than added on top of it. The initiative is estimated to generate over two million dollars annually for public safety.
The early results are already visible in departmental staffing. The Forney Police Department has grown meaningfully since 2022, and CCPD funding has since supported additional positions beyond that expansion. The department's strategic staffing plan calls for continued hiring of patrol officers over a multi-year horizon, and leadership has identified a range of critical positions — patrol officers, detectives, and support roles — still needed to reach full capacity for a city this size.
Beyond headcount, the department launched a district-based community policing initiative in summer 2025. Dedicated district sergeants and officers are assigned to specific geographic areas of Forney on six-month rotations, building neighborhood-level relationships and targeting crime proactively rather than reactively. That kind of localized accountability is harder to stand up in a fast-growing city than in a stable one, which makes the initiative notable.
For anyone weighing a move, the takeaway is structural: Forney isn't coasting on good numbers from a quieter era. The city is actively investing in the machinery that keeps those numbers good as it scales.
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The Real Safety Issue in Forney: Traffic, Not Crime
Here's what the crime statistics don't capture, and what longtime Forney residents will tell you matters just as much day to day: traffic safety is the leading public safety concern in the city, and it's a function of how fast Forney has grown.
Rapid population growth and new commercial development contributed to more than 120 crash responses per month in 2024, according to WFAA reporting from June 2025. That figure reflects what happens when a road network designed for a much smaller city absorbs tens of thousands of new residents and the retail and logistics development that follows them. US-80 carries a heavy load, and the arterials feeding the master-planned communities are under consistent pressure during peak hours.
The CCPD is directing funding in part toward technology designed to clear roadways faster after crashes and reduce the drain on officer availability for other calls. That's an acknowledgment from city leadership that crash response has become a meaningful portion of the police department's operational burden.
The honest friction moment for new residents: the first time you sit in crash-related backup on US-80 during a weekday afternoon, it reframes how you think about Forney's growth. The crime numbers are excellent. The road infrastructure is catching up. Those are two separate facts, and both are real. For context on the commute picture more broadly, the living in Forney guide covers the daily commute dynamics in detail.
For families with kids who will be driving to school, or for anyone whose daily routine involves multiple errands across the city, building in margin for traffic-related delays is a practical adjustment, especially as commercial development continues to add new intersections and turning movements to established corridors.
How to Research Safety Before Choosing a Forney Neighborhood
The citywide crime data tells you Forney is a safe city. The neighborhood-level data tells you where within Forney that safety is most consistent. Neither number tells you everything about the specific street you're considering — that requires a few deliberate steps.
Use Address-Level Crime Tools
CrimeGrade.org allows you to enter a specific Forney address and see the localized crime grade for that micro-area. The citywide picture is strong, but a block near a high-traffic commercial corridor will read differently than a cul-de-sac inside a master-planned community. Run the address, not just the city.
Map the Development Frontier
Forney's growth is active, meaning the commercial corridors and retail nodes are still being established in some parts of the city. Areas where new retail is concentrating tend to see more opportunistic property crime simply because there's more foot traffic and more vehicle turnover. Checking what's being built near a neighborhood you're considering — not just what's there now — is a useful forward-looking step.
Talk to Current Residents
Forney has active neighborhood communities on social platforms, and the signal-to-noise ratio in Forney-specific groups tends to be good. Residents are generally candid about local conditions, including both the crime picture and the traffic reality. Residents consistently describe the city as quiet and safe, and that community assessment aligns well with the official numbers — a useful cross-check when you're weighing a specific neighborhood.
Look at the Southeast and South First
If minimizing crime exposure is the primary filter, the southeast and southern portions of Forney represent the strongest starting point by the available data. Established communities in those areas, including Windmill Farms, carry the city's best safety grades from independent analytics platforms. That's where to anchor your search if safety is the top criterion.
For a fuller picture of how these neighborhoods compare on character, housing stock, and who they suit best, the Forney neighborhoods guide goes deeper on each community.
Local Expert Takeaway: Forney's violent and property crime rates are genuinely low — well below Texas and national averages — and the city's proactive investment through the CCPD and district-based policing means the numbers are backed by real infrastructure, not just favorable demographics. The one thing newcomers consistently underestimate is traffic: more than 120 crash responses per month on roads built for a much smaller city is the daily friction that the crime statistics don't show. If safety is your primary filter, focus your search on southeast and southern Forney, where the crime analytics are strongest, and plan your daily routes with traffic in mind.
Quick Takeaways & FAQs
✅ Forney carries a violent crime rate of 2 per 1,000 residents — half the Texas state average and below the national figure — a genuine distinction for a fast-growing exurb.
⚠️ Traffic safety — not violent crime — is Forney's most pressing day-to-day public safety challenge, with more than 120 crash responses per month recorded in 2024.
📍 The southeast and southern portions of Forney carry the city's lowest crime grades; Windmill Farms in particular has received top safety ratings from independent crime analytics platforms.
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