New Kensington. Shooting. A man in his 30s was shot in the leg in the 1100 block of Fifth Avenue around 9:15 p.m. on a Tuesday and went to a hospital on his own, where he was in stable condition. The person who fired the shot fled.
Is crime going up in New Kensington, Arnold and Lower Burrell?
FBI figures through 2024 · Updated Sept. 23, 2026
Emergency911
Source: Westmoreland County, City of Lower Burrell
The short answer
New Kensington police reported 54 violent crimes to the FBI in 2024, or 4.6 per 1,000 residents, up from 40 (3.4 per 1,000) in 2023. That is the city's highest rate since 2019 (5.3). Property crime rose to 24.0 per 1,000 from 21.2, still lower than any year from 2001 through 2019. Police cleared 32 of the 54 violent crimes. Full report ›
Arnold police reported 39 violent crimes in the 9 months of 2024 they sent to the FBI, about 4.3 a month, up from about 2.2 a month in 2022 (22 in 10 months). Arnold sent no figures for 2023. The 2024 count works out to 8.4 per 1,000 residents, the city's highest rate since 2018 (9.7), and with three months missing the full-year number can only be higher. Police cleared 8 of the 39. Full report ›
Lower Burrell police reported 10 violent crimes to the FBI in 2024, or 0.9 per 1,000 residents and about 0.8 a month, down from 17 in the 11 months of 2023 it reported (about 1.5 a month). That is the lowest rate since 2018 (0.8). Property crime fell to 2.3 per 1,000, the lowest in the department's FBI record, which goes back to 2000. Police cleared all 10 violent crimes. Full report ›
Small towns swing from year to year; a few incidents can move a rate a lot.
Source: FBI UCR via Jacob Kaplan
The latest year, side by side
| Department | Violent | Property | Officers* |
|---|---|---|---|
| New KensingtonNew Kensington Police Department | 4.654 in 2024 | 24.0284 in 2024 | 2.024 sworn, 2024 |
| ArnoldArnold Police Department | 8.439 in 2024, only 9 of 12 months † | 15.572 in 2024, only 9 of 12 months † | 1.57 sworn, 2024 |
| Lower BurrellLower Burrell Police Department | 0.910 in 2024 | 2.327 in 2024 | 1.517 sworn, 2024 |
Rates are per 1,000 residents; under each is the count and the year. † Partial year. * Sworn officers per 1,000 residents, as counted by the FBI. Each department page sets that next to the department's own count: New Kensington, Arnold and Lower Burrell. Source: FBI UCR via Jacob Kaplan.
Violent crime since 2000
Arnold's rate has swung the most, from 1.6 per 1,000 in 2016 to 13.9 in 2017.
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents, as each department reported them to the FBI. Every panel uses the same scale.
New Kensington
Arnold
Lower Burrell
Source: FBI UCR via Jacob Kaplan · Hollow dots are partial-year reports
Property crime since 2000
Property crime is well below its 2000s level in New Kensington and Lower Burrell and about the same in Arnold, going by the 9 months of 2024 Arnold reported.
Property crimes per 1,000 residents. Every panel uses the same scale.
New Kensington
Arnold
Lower Burrell
The 2000s level is the median of each department's 2001–2009 rates per 1,000 residents: New Kensington 24.0 in 2024, against 33.1; Arnold 20.7 in 2024, at the pace of its 9 reported months, against 20.5; Lower Burrell 2.3 in 2024, against 12.9.
Source: FBI UCR via Jacob Kaplan · Hollow dots are partial-year reports
Latest in the police blotter
Lower Burrell. Police shooting. Police responded to Rodgers Drive around 6:30 p.m. after a report that a gunshot had been fired into an occupied home, and a man barricaded himself inside a residence. Police said he fired at Westmoreland County SWAT members after they deployed gas and SWAT returned fire, wounding him; he was charged with attempted homicide, no officers were hurt, and the district attorney later ruled the use of force justified.
Lower Burrell. Robbery. Police said two men assaulted a man in his 70s during a dispute at a bar on Leechburg Road. Both were charged with robbery, simple assault, theft and related counts, and the charges were held for court.
Arnold. Shooting. Three men were wounded in an exchange of gunfire on Leishman Avenue around 7 p.m. on a Wednesday, and all were taken to hospitals with injuries that were not life-threatening. Officials described the shooting as an isolated incident.
New Kensington. Homicide. A man in his 40s was shot outside the New Kensington Elks Lodge on Third Avenue just before 3 a.m. following an argument inside, and he died at a hospital. Another man involved in the argument was charged with criminal homicide.
Serious crashes
PennDOT recorded 150 crashes from 2005 through 2024 that killed or seriously injured someone in the three cities: 73 in Lower Burrell, 70 in New Kensington and 7 in Arnold.
Department reports
- New Kensington ›Up. Violent crime: 54 in 2024 (4.6 per 1,000), from 40 in 2023 (3.4).
- Arnold ›Up. Violent crime: 39 in 9 months of 2024 (about 4.3 a month), from 22 in 10 months of 2022 (about 2.2 a month).
- Lower Burrell ›Down. Violent crime: 10 in 2024 (about 0.8 a month), from 17 in 11 months of 2023 (about 1.5 a month).
About these numbers
Crime counts come from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program: the offenses each city's police department reported to the FBI, year by year, as compiled per department by Jacob Kaplan. The FBI identifies the departments by these codes: New Kensington PA06510, Arnold PA06514 and Lower Burrell PA06506.
Violent crime is murder and manslaughter, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Property crime is burglary, larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft. Arson is listed on its own.
Rates are per 1,000 residents, using the population the FBI published for that department and year. Small towns swing from year to year; a few incidents can move a rate a lot.
Gaps: New Kensington: no offense counts for 2000, 2021; Arnold: no offense counts for 2003, 2019, 2021, 2023; Lower Burrell: no offense counts for 2021. 2021 is missing for most Pennsylvania agencies because of the FBI's switch to incident-based reporting (NIBRS).
Partial years. In some years a department reported fewer than 12 months. Those years are marked † and drawn as hollow dots, and comparisons with them use monthly averages rather than totals.
Cleared means the FBI counts the case as closed, usually by an arrest. Arrests include people who don't live in the city.
Mapped incidents are ones local news reported with a street location, checked against the original report. They are a sample, not a complete record. Locations are rounded to the hundred-block (21), an intersection (6) or a named place (2); 14 are placed on the street only and marked approximate.
Left out on purpose: names of suspects, victims and line officers (public officials such as chiefs and mayors may be named); exact house numbers; anything identifying a juvenile. Individual sexual-offense incidents are never mapped or listed; the FBI totals include them. An arrest or charge is not a conviction. The linked source articles are the original news reports and may name people; this site does not.
Policing notes: Agencies, staffing and interactions come from news reports and department pages; the two fatal police shootings are from the Washington Post's database (2015–2024). Items that could not be verified were removed.
Sources: FBI UCR via Jacob Kaplan, PennDOT crash data, WPXI, CBS News Pittsburgh, CrimeWatch, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, TribLive community news, Valley News Dispatch (TribLive), Tribune-Review archive, Washington Post.