According to a report by Safewise, Santa Monica is among the least safe cities in California. Safewise compiled its list using FBI crime statistics as well as reports from other states based on the number of violent and property crimes reported to the FBI by cities and towns.
This was then computed based on the crime rates per 1000 residents in each municipal area. Santa Monica has a violent crime rate of 6 and a property crime rate of 42.6 crimes per 1,000 residents, according to the report.
According to Fox11, Those numbers rank the city #224 out of 230, just below San Francisco. In 2021, Santa Monica ranked 222. The only other California cities with a higher rate are Compton (#225), Richmond (#225), Stockton (#227), San Bernardino (#229), and Oakland (#230). Some SoCal cities were placed at the bottom of the list because of property crimes. Among them are Beverly Hills (#204), Culver City (#220), West Hollywood (#212), and Los Angeles (#200).
This list’s top 50 safest cities in California have an average population of 77,162, but nine of them have over 100,000 residents, and three have over 200,000. Santa Clarita, which ranks 13th on the list, is among them.
“For the purposes of city ranking reports, the terms ‘dangerous’ and ‘safest’ refer explicitly to crime rates as calculated from FBI crime data — no other characterization of any community is implied or intended.” and that “The ‘safest’ cities rankings are intended to highlight cities with low crime rates and ignite conversation and action around how to make all cities and communities safer,” according to Safewise.
According to the report, violent crimes include aggravated assault, murder, rape, and robbery, while property crimes include burglaries, larceny-theft, and vehicle theft.
“Both violent and property crime numbers were weighted equally. That means that a city with no violent crimes reported could end up lower on the list due to a higher property crime rate, and vice versa,” Safewise said.
The average population of the top 50 of this list’s safest cities in California is 77,162, however, nine of the safest cities have populations in excess of 100,000 residents and three have populations of over 200,000. One of those cities is Santa Clarita which ranks #13 on the list.
Approximately half of the 50 safest cities have data on murder. As such, the SafeWise report states that “there were fewer reports of each major property crime this reporting year — except motor vehicle thefts, echoing rising national car thefts during the pandemic.”