Areas to Avoid in Buffalo: Neighborhood Safety Map (2026 Data)

The areas to avoid in Buffalo are the downtown core and four neighborhoods beside it: Allentown to the north, the Fruit Belt around the Medical Campus to the northeast, and Pratt-Willert and Ellicott to the east. Between November 2025 and November 2026, 5 of the city’s 35 official neighborhoods recorded 12 or more violent crimes per 1,000 residents, about 1.7 times the city rate of 7.2. They hold 6% of Buffalo’s residents, 15% of its violent crime and 2 of its 17 homicides.

Neighborhoods to avoid in Buffalo: Central, the downtown core from Chippewa Street to Canalside and the Outer Harbor. Allentown, between Main Street and the Lower West Side. The Fruit Belt, east of Main Street around the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. Pratt-Willert and Ellicott, east of Michigan Avenue from Cherry Street south to South Park Avenue, with Larkinville in Ellicott.

Buffalo’s violent crime rate is close to Philadelphia’s and about 30% lower than Milwaukee’s. All five avoid areas have fewer than 4,000 residents, and Central’s rate divides the crimes of the whole downtown core, with its bars, offices and arenas, among 3,930 residents. The East Side has more violent crime in total than any other part of town, spread over larger neighborhoods. Compared with the 12 months before, robberies fell 8%, burglaries 31% and stolen vehicles 14%.

Buffalo safety map

Red neighborhoods are the places to avoid in Buffalo and orange ones call for caution. Yellow is average and green is below average. The beige villages at the edge, Kenmore and Sloan, have their own police. Use the buttons to zoom to Downtown & Waterfront, the West Side, the East Side or South Buffalo, and switch to Theft & robbery to see where thefts and robberies happen. Tap or hover over a neighborhood for its numbers.

Violent crimeTheft & robbery

All BuffaloDowntown & WaterfrontWest SideEast SideSouth Buffalo

Violent crimes per 1,000 residents

Avoid (12+ per 1,000)Use caution (10–12)Average (5–10)Lower risk (under 5)Few residents

Thefts & robberies per area

250+200–249150–199Under 150

Tap or hover a neighborhood to see its numbers.

Table of Contents

• Areas to avoid in Buffalo
• Areas to be careful in
• Is downtown Buffalo safe?
• Is Chippewa Street safe at night?
• Is the Elmwood Village safe?
• Is the East Side of Buffalo safe?
• Buffalo crime rate
• Car theft and break-ins in Buffalo
• Safest neighborhoods to stay in Buffalo
• Cheektowaga, Amherst and the suburbs
• Buffalo safety tips for visitors
• How this map was made
• FAQ

Areas to avoid in Buffalo

These are the 5 neighborhoods with 12 or more violent crimes per 1,000 residents. All five sit in the Downtown & Waterfront view, which as a whole rates 15.7 per 1,000, the highest of the five parts of town. Most of their violent crimes are assaults: 251 of 339. Together they recorded 779 thefts, more than twice their violent total.

Central: downtown and the waterfront

Central has the highest violent crime rate in Buffalo, 33.1 per 1,000 residents, and the second-most violent crimes of any neighborhood, 130. The official neighborhood covers the whole downtown core: City Hall and Niagara Square, Chippewa Street, Canalside, KeyBank Center and Sahlen Field, plus the Cobblestone District and the Outer Harbor along the lake. Its western and northern edges follow the I-190 and Tupper Street, and Michigan Avenue bounds it on the east.

Only 3,930 people live there, so each crime moves its rate more than in a larger neighborhood. The violence is concentrated: 47 of Central’s 130 violent crimes happened within 250 meters of Chippewa Street, while the 350 meters around Canalside and KeyBank Center recorded 3. Central also recorded 76 stolen vehicles, the fourth-most in the city.

The Fruit Belt and the Medical Campus

The Fruit Belt (20.4) has the second-highest rate in Buffalo. The city’s polygon runs from Main Street east to the Kensington Expressway, between Best Street and Cherry Street, and wraps the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus with Buffalo General, Oishei Children’s Hospital and Roswell Park. It is home to 3,135 people and recorded 64 violent crimes and 1 homicide. Hospital security and UB Police patrol part of the campus, and their reports are not in the city’s file.

Pratt-Willert and Ellicott

Pratt-Willert (12.5) lies between Michigan Avenue and Jefferson Avenue south of Cherry Street, directly south of the Fruit Belt. It recorded 50 violent crimes and 1 homicide among 3,994 residents. Ellicott (15.8) is south of it, between Michigan Avenue and Smith Street with South Park Avenue on its southern edge. Larkinville and Larkin Square are inside Ellicott. Ellicott recorded 177 thefts against 47 violent crimes and no homicides.

Allentown

Allentown (12.3) sits just over the avoid line. It is a small neighborhood of 3,898 residents between Main Street and the Lower West Side, from Tupper Street north to North Street, known for the galleries and bars on Allen Street. The street itself carries most of the numbers: 28 of Allentown’s 48 violent crimes and 128 thefts were recorded within 300 meters of the middle of Allen Street. Allentown recorded no homicides.

Areas to be careful in

These 3 neighborhoods have 10 to 12 violent crimes per 1,000 residents. Together with the avoid areas they hold 16% of residents and 28% of violent crime.

Broadway Fillmore, the large East Side neighborhood around Broadway and the Central Terminal, recorded more violent crimes (147) and assaults (101) than any other neighborhood in Buffalo, and tied for the most homicides with 2. Its rate is lower than the avoid areas’ because 13,788 people live there. Delavan Grider (11.4) is farther north, between the Kensington Expressway and East Delavan Avenue above East Ferry Street. The Lower West Side (11.2) runs from the I-190 east toward Allentown, west of downtown.

Delavan Grider is home to Erie County Medical Center on Grider Street. Reports taken at the hospital are left out of its count; with them, Delavan Grider would rate above the avoid line.

Is downtown Buffalo safe?

Yes for daytime visits, games and events at Canalside. Downtown’s violent crime clusters on one bar strip, Chippewa Street. The downtown core is one official neighborhood, Central, and its rate of 33.1 per 1,000 is the highest in the city. The Downtown & Waterfront view recorded 1,032 thefts and robberies, about 2.5 for every violent crime.

The waterfront is the calmer side of downtown. The area around Canalside and KeyBank Center recorded 3 violent crimes in 12 months. In June 2025 two people were wounded in a targeted shooting at Canalside on a weekday evening, and security there was increased afterward. Over the July 4 weekend in 2026, when Canalside hosted the World’s Largest Rubber Duck, Buffalo recorded 11 shootings, none of them downtown.

Is Chippewa Street safe at night?

Chippewa Street, the bar strip between Delaware Avenue and Franklin Street, holds more than a third of Central’s violent crime. Police recorded 47 violent crimes within 250 meters of it in 12 months, 39 of them assaults. On November 1, 2025, a 19-year-old was shot dead and another wounded near West Chippewa and Pearl at about 2:20 a.m.

The city has tightened rules since. In summer 2026 it limited vehicles and parking on Chippewa between Franklin Street and Delaware Avenue at peak hours, added a rideshare pickup spot and began reviewing a ban on under-21s after 10 p.m. from Thursday to Saturday. In October 2026 several bars sued the city over the age restrictions. If you go out on Chippewa, leave before closing time and meet your ride at the designated pickup spot.

Is the Elmwood Village safe?

Yes. Two official neighborhoods cover the Elmwood Village stretch of Elmwood Avenue. Elmwood Bidwell, north of West Ferry Street with the Buffalo AKG Art Museum and Buffalo State, rates 3.5 violent crimes per 1,000, one of the lowest rates in the city. Elmwood Bryant, the stretch of Elmwood Avenue from North Street to West Ferry Street, rates 6.3. Within 300 meters of Elmwood Avenue at Bidwell Parkway, police recorded 3 violent crimes in 12 months.

Car theft is the risk to plan for. Elmwood Bidwell recorded 98 stolen vehicles and Elmwood Bryant 83, the second and third most in Buffalo after North Park.

Is the East Side of Buffalo safe?

The East Side records more violent crime than any other part of Buffalo. Its 11 neighborhoods recorded 805 violent crimes and 7 homicides, and rate 8.6 per 1,000 as a group, above the city rate. Broadway Fillmore and Delavan Grider are on the caution list. Genesee-Moselle (9.5), Lovejoy (9.3), Kenfield (9.2) and Masten Park (9.1) are just under the caution line. Genesee-Moselle tied Broadway Fillmore for the most homicides. Several of the 11 shootings of the July 4 weekend in 2026 happened on Moselle Street, Glenwood Avenue and Grider Street.

Visitors come to the East Side for the Central Terminal and Martin Luther King Jr. Park. Drive or take a rideshare to them after dark. Hamlin Park (4.7) has the lowest rate on the East Side.

Buffalo crime rate

Buffalo police recorded 2,207 violent crimes between November 2025 and November 2026, 7.93 per 1,000 residents, and 17 homicides. In calendar 2025 the FBI counted 29 homicides in Buffalo, down from 38 in 2024, and the city reported 14 homicides through August 24, 2026, about 22% fewer than at the same point in 2025. The state counted 101 shootings with injuries in Buffalo in 2025.

Compared with the 12 months before, robberies fell 8%, burglaries 31%, thefts 9% and stolen vehicles 14%. By Common Council district, Ellicott has the highest violent crime rate of the nine, 10.4 per 1,000, followed by Fillmore at 10.2. Delaware, which covers the Elmwood Village, Parkside and North Park, has the lowest at 3.5. By part of town, Downtown & Waterfront rates 15.7, the East Side 8.6, the West Side 5.5, South Buffalo 4.8 and North Buffalo 4.5.

Car theft and break-ins in Buffalo

Police recorded 1,592 stolen vehicles in 12 months, down from 1,844 the year before. North Park led with 111, then Elmwood Bidwell, Elmwood Bryant and Central. BPD files thefts from cars together with other thefts, so break-ins are not counted on their own. North Park, with Hertel Avenue and its shops, recorded the most thefts of all kinds, 550. Leave nothing in sight in a parked car, including bags, laptops and charging cables.

Safest neighborhoods to stay in Buffalo

Parkside, around Delaware Park and Hoyt Lake, and Elmwood Bidwell, with the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, have two of the lowest violent crime rates in Buffalo. North Park, with Hertel Avenue, and Elmwood Bryant, the southern half of the Elmwood strip, follow. The First Ward, south of downtown, rates 3.7 and is the lowest-rate neighborhood in the Downtown & Waterfront view. South Park, in South Buffalo, matches North Park’s rate.

University Heights, around UB’s South Campus at the end of the Metro Rail line, rates 3.9. UB Police patrol the campus, and their reports are not in BPD’s file. Downtown hotels are in Central, which covers the whole core. For a downtown stay, pick a hotel near Canalside or Niagara Square rather than on Chippewa Street.

Cheektowaga, Amherst and the suburbs

The police departments around Buffalo report lower violent crime rates than the city. The four other departments in the table together reported 2.11 violent crimes per 1,000 residents in 2025, against 7.29 for Buffalo in the same FBI data. Niagara Falls has the highest rate of the group. Cheektowaga, home to Buffalo Niagara International Airport, reports under a third of Buffalo’s rate, and Amherst and West Seneca report the lowest. The Bills play at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, outside the city.

Murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault reported to the FBI by each agency, per 1,000 residents of the population the agency reports. Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer. Agencies that report no complete year are left out.

Buffalo safety tips for visitors

• Stay near Canalside or Niagara Square downtown, or in the Elmwood Village, Parkside or North Park.
• Leave Chippewa Street before bar closing and use the rideshare pickup spot.
• Elmwood Bidwell, Elmwood Bryant and North Park lead the city in stolen vehicles. Lock the car and leave nothing in it.
• Metro Rail runs one line from downtown up Main Street to UB’s South Campus. The aboveground downtown section is normally free. Single-tracking work that began on November 1, 2026 has closed DL&W Station until mid-November, and trains end at Canalside.
• The regular Metro fare is $2, capped at $5 a day on a MetGo card.
• Drive or take a rideshare to East Side sights such as the Central Terminal after dark.
• Call 9-1-1 for emergencies. For non-emergency police matters, call 311, or 716-851-4890 from outside the city. The Buffalo Police main line is 716-851-4444.

How this map was made

Crime counts come from the Buffalo Police Department’s Crime Incidents file on the city’s open data portal, for November 2025 through November 2026. Violent crime means murder and manslaughter, rape and other sex offenses, robbery and assault. BPD files one record per incident with its most serious offense, not one per victim. Until November 10, 2025, its assault label also held simple assaults, so the map’s 12 months start on that date; from then on the assault count is within 3% of BPD’s FBI report for aggravated assault. In June 2026 BPD moved to a new records system that merges some offense labels, and the map counts both. Homicide and robbery for calendar 2025 match BPD’s FBI figures within 3%. Year-over-year changes are given only for robbery, burglary, theft and stolen vehicles, the offenses whose definitions did not change.

Each crime is placed in one of the City of Buffalo’s 35 official neighborhoods by its map coordinates. The neighborhood name typed into each police record matches the official boundaries on only 74.4% of rows, so it is not used. About 6% of records have no coordinates and are left out, along with 84 violent crimes geocoded to hospitals and police stations, most of them at Erie County Medical Center. Population is the 2020 Census count by block. The tiers are Avoid (12 or more violent crimes per 1,000 residents), Use caution (10 to 12), Average (5 to 10) and Lower risk (under 5). The suburban table uses each department’s reports to the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer for 2025, since Buffalo’s FBI data ends in May 2026.

Crimes handled by NFTA Transit Police on Metro Rail and the buses, by UB Police and Buffalo State University Police on their campuses, by hospital security on the Medical Campus and by State Police on the I-190 and the Kensington Expressway are not in BPD’s records. The hour of day is left out for crimes logged at exactly midnight or noon, the default times. The theft layer counts thefts and robberies, not rates.

We built the same map for the areas to avoid in Chicago, the areas to avoid in New York City, the areas to avoid in San Francisco, the areas to avoid in Los Angeles, the areas to avoid in Miami, the areas to avoid in Atlanta, the areas to avoid in Baltimore, the areas to avoid in Detroit, the areas to avoid in Austin, the areas to avoid in Philadelphia, the areas to avoid in St. Louis, the areas to avoid in Boston, the areas to avoid in Denver, the areas to avoid in Houston, the areas to avoid in San Diego, the areas to avoid in Milwaukee and the areas to avoid in Jacksonville.

FAQ