FBI arson data · 2024
Iowa Arson
250 arson offenses were reported by 325 Iowa law-enforcement agencies in 2024 — 0.7% of the national total. The most was reported by Des Moines Police Department (34).
Iowa agencies with the most reported arson
| Agency | Type | County | Arsons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Des Moines Police Department | City | Polk County | 34 |
| Sioux City Police Department | City | Woodbury County | 20 |
| Davenport Police Department | City | Scott County | 19 |
| Waterloo Police Department | City | Black Hawk County | 17 |
| Fort Dodge Police Department | City | Webster County | 13 |
| Clinton Police Department | City | Clinton County | 9 |
| Cedar Rapids Police Department | City | Linn County | 9 |
| Marshalltown Police Department | City | Marshall County | 8 |
| Council Bluffs Police Department | City | Pottawattamie County | 8 |
| Dubuque Police Department | City | Dubuque County | 6 |
| Waukee Police Department | City | Dallas County | 5 |
| Burlington Police Department | City | Des Moines County | 5 |
| Mason City Police Department | City | Cerro Gordo County | 4 |
| Iowa City Police Department | City | Johnson County | 4 |
| Ottumwa Police Department | City | Wapello County | 4 |
| Woodbury County Sheriff's Office | County | Woodbury County | 4 |
| Maquoketa Police Department | City | Jackson County | 3 |
| Johnson County Sheriff's Office | County | Johnson County | 3 |
| Mills County Sheriff's Office | County | Mills County | 3 |
| Department of Public Safety: | Unknown | — | 3 |
| Appanoose County Sheriff's Office | County | Appanoose County | 2 |
| Osceola Police Department | City | Clarke County | 2 |
| Denison Police Department | City | Crawford County | 2 |
| Perry Police Department | City | Dallas County | 2 |
| Greene County Sheriff's Office | County | Greene County | 2 |
Iowa arson by county
By the reporting agency's headquarters county — multi-jurisdiction agencies land in one county. Counties with no reported arson are not listed.
About this data
- Counts are arson offenses (fires), not arrests. Each figure is a fire that a law-enforcement agency determined or suspected was intentionally set. Arson arrests are a different, much smaller number — most arsons are never cleared — and are tracked separately in our Arrests dataset.
- The figures are de-duplicated across the FBI's two overlapping reporting streams — the legacy SRS summary system and NIBRS incident data. Most agencies appear in both, so naively summing the two streams, as some published totals do, roughly doubles the count. Each agency here is counted once, from its best available stream.
- Reported agencies only. The total covers agencies in the FBI's 2024 master files — about 96% of the FBI's own de-duplicated figure of 36,558, which comes from its live database and includes some later-arriving reports. Nothing here is estimated, so totals slightly undercount and are not strictly comparable across areas with different reporting coverage.
- Location is the reporting agency's headquarters county, not where the fire happened. Multi-jurisdiction agencies concentrate in one county — every NYPD-reported arson lands in New York County, for example — and county figures cover geolocated agencies only, so they sum to slightly less than the national total.
- Zero and missing mean different things. A zero means agencies in that county reported to the FBI and logged no arson; a county with no figure at all had no reporting agency headquartered there.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, 2024 SRS and NIBRS files, de-duplicated by agency. pumsdata is independent and not affiliated with the FBI. How our data works.
Iowa arson — FAQ
How many arsons were reported in Iowa in 2024?+
250 arson offenses were reported to the FBI by 325 Iowa law-enforcement agencies in 2024; 74 of those agencies logged at least one arson. Actual arsons are somewhat higher, since not every agency reports.
Which agency reported the most arson in Iowa?+
Des Moines Police Department, with 34 reported arson offenses in 2024 (headquartered in Polk County).
What share of U.S. arson happens in Iowa?+
Iowa's 250 reported arsons were 0.7% of the 34,990 reported nationwide in 2024. Reporting coverage varies by state, so shares are approximate.
Where does this data come from?+
The FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program's 2024 SRS and NIBRS files, de-duplicated by agency. Counts are arson offenses (fires), not arrests, from reporting agencies only. pumsdata is independent and not affiliated with the FBI.