Contrary to what you may hear (luckily, no doomsayers as of this post), Columbia (and Howard County in general) is one of the safest major suburban areas to live. You'll find people talking about "crime is rising" (especially since it's election time), but the per capita rate remains on a downward trend since the '80s.

As of the 2019 UCRs, Howard County's violent crime rate is over 70% below both state and national levels. The "worst" areas of Columbia, specifically, are still 60% below national levels for violent crime (and even lower for murder or robbery).

While no city this size has zero crime, and we do have incidents happen, you are statistically speaking unlikely to face violent crime in this area. Most stuff here is property crime, and even that is well below state and federal levels in most zip codes.