Golden Gate Theater · Photo: Los Angeles · CC BY-SA 4.0East Los Angeles has no Safety Grade
The nearest town with a Safety Grade is Monterey Park, 2 miles away, graded C−. East Los Angeles has no police department of its own: it’s an unincorporated community (a census-designated place) in Los Angeles County. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office reports to the FBI for the parts of the county without police of their own, so there are no figures for East Los Angeles alone, and no Safety Grade. 24 towns with a Safety Grade lie within 10 miles.
What stands out about safety in East Los Angeles
Policed by the county
East Los Angeles is a census-designated place, with no town government. Crimes there are reported to the FBI inside the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office’s totals for the county. County police ↓
Counts, not rates
The FBI doesn’t publish how many people the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office covers, so its totals can’t be turned into a per-resident rate or a grade for East Los Angeles. County police ↓
The nearest graded towns
The closest California towns with their own police figures are Monterey Park (C−, 2 mi), Commerce (D−, 3 mi), Maywood (C−, 3 mi). Nearby towns can differ a lot from East Los Angeles. Nearest ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office reports
Reports to the FBI for the parts of Los Angeles County without police of their own, which include East Los Angeles.
Property crimes
Violent crimes
2025 offenses reported by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office
Counts, not rates: the FBI doesn’t publish how many people each agency covers. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, Tables 10–11.
Crimes reported to the FBI for the whole area the department covers, by year.
The nearest California towns with a Safety Grade
| Town | Grade | Distance | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monterey Park | C− | 2 mi | 2.9 | 20.7 |
| Commerce | D− | 3 mi | 13.7 | 123.4 |
| Maywood | C− | 3 mi | 5.5 | 14.1 |
| Montebello | D | 3 mi | 4.8 | 26.5 |
| Bell | C− | 4 mi | 5.8 | 12.5 |
| Alhambra | C | 4 mi | 2.2 | 23.0 |
Straight-line distance from the center of East Los Angeles. Nearby towns can differ a lot from East Los Angeles.
Each town’s own police figures, per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
39 people died in crashes on East Los Angeles’s roads in 2019–2023
East Los Angeles had 34 fatal crashes in five years, in which 39 people died; 13 were pedestrians and 1 was a cyclist. 8 died in crashes on an Interstate.
That is 7.0 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as the median for California towns of 100,000+ people (7.7, 76 towns).
Deaths are counted where the crash happened, not where the people lived: a highway through town adds through-traffic deaths, and residents’ own risk on roads elsewhere isn’t here. Town rates sit below state and U.S. rates because a third of fatal crashes happen outside any town. Road safety is described here and is not part of the Safety Grade. Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2019–2023.
East Los Angeles and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montebello | D | 4.8 | 26.5 |
| Monterey Park | C− | 2.9 | 20.7 |
| Commerce | D− | 13.7 | 123.4 |
| Los Angeles | D | 7.4 | 21.9 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- It’s reported crime. Only incidents reported to and recorded by police appear here. Many crimes are never reported to police.
- A county agency covers a wide area. Its totals mix many communities, so they say little about any one of them.
- Gaps are real gaps. A missing year means the department didn’t report a full year, not that nothing happened.
How the grade is calculated, for every town: How TownRatings grades safety →
Questions about safety in East Los Angeles
Is East Los Angeles, CA safe?
There is no Safety Grade for East Los Angeles. The nearest California towns with a grade are Monterey Park (C−, 2 mi), Commerce (D−, 3 mi), Maywood (C−, 3 mi).
Who polices East Los Angeles?
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office. East Los Angeles is an unincorporated community, and the department reports to the FBI for the parts of Los Angeles County without police of their own.
Heads-up board
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
Neighbors looking out for each other in East Los Angeles.
Crime: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Crime Data Explorer: offenses known to law enforcement by city, and state and national rates. Counts are crimes reported to police, not convictions. The Safety Grade is our own summary of that data, not an official rating. Road deaths: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2019–2023. This isn’t an official statement of public safety. In an emergency, call 911.