Photo: Visitor7 · CC BY-SA 3.0Palm Springs sees more crime per resident than 92% of U.S. towns
All 3 towns next door with figures record less crime per resident. Police counts work out at 5.6 violent crimes and 32.7 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents annually; in the rest of California they are 4.8 and 21.3. Graded on crimes Palm Springs’ police reported from 2023 to 2025, it scores D for safety: #371 of 416 graded towns in California. Per resident, the graded crimes were down 20% from 2023 to 2025.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of CA” is every other California city and town in the FBI’s tables; the U.S. figure is the FBI’s national estimate as published, averaged over the three years. The FBI publishes no national homicide or robbery rate in our data, so those compare with all U.S. cities and towns in its tables.
What stands out about safety in Palm Springs
3 of the 3 graded towns next door report less crime
Of the 4 California towns on Palm Springs’ borders, 3 have a Safety Grade: Cathedral City (C+), Desert Hot Springs (C), Rancho Mirage (C−). Whitewater is an unincorporated community (a census-designated place) with no police department of its own. Neighbors ↓
Reported crime is falling
Crime reported per resident fell from 2023 to 2025 by more than ordinary year-to-year swings, on the grade’s own score. Trend ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Palm Springs’ grade
Property crimes plus four times violent crimes reported to the FBI per resident, 2023–2025, on a national curve. Both violent and property crime are higher than in most U.S. towns; violent crime is the closer of the two to typical.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Palm Springs property | Rest of California property | Palm Springs violent | Rest of California violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 49.6 | 24.8 | 7.0 | 5.1 |
| 2023 | 36.9 | 24.9 | 5.8 | 5.4 |
| 2024 | 32.1 | 20.8 | 6.0 | 4.9 |
| 2025 | 29.1 | 18.5 | 5.0 | 4.3 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2022–2025, against the rest of California.
Crime in Palm Springs per 1,000 residents
Violent crime per 1,000 residents, 2025
Property crime per 1,000 residents, 2025
Crimes reported to police in 2025 per resident; one person can be the victim of more than one, and some reports involve visitors.
And about 5 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Palm Springs | Rest of California | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 7.0 | 5.1 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 5.8 | 5.4 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 6.0 | 4.9 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 5.0 | 4.3 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Palm Springs’ police reported 765 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 5.6 per 1,000 residents a year, against 4.8 in the rest of California and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
1,557 crimes reported in 2025
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
229 violent and 1,328 property, as reported to the FBI by Palm Springs’ police.
68 people died in crashes on Palm Springs’s roads in 2019–2023
Palm Springs had 61 fatal crashes in five years, in which 68 people died; 16 were pedestrians and 6 were cyclists. 6 died in crashes on an Interstate.
That is 30.2 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for California towns of 25,000–100,000 people (5.6, 231 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.
Palm Springs and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palm Springs | D | 5.6 | 32.7 |
| Cathedral City | C+ | 3.0 | 12.4 |
| Desert Hot Springs | C | 4.9 | 12.2 |
| Rancho Mirage | C− | 2.1 | 25.3 |
| Whitewater | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Whitewater is an unincorporated community (a census-designated place) with no police department of its own.
California towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palm Springs | D | 5.6 | 32.7 |
| Rancho Santa Margarita | A− | 0.8 | 4.7 |
| Hollister | B− | 3.1 | 7.2 |
| Morgan Hill | C+ | 2.2 | 13.3 |
| Rohnert Park | C+ | 2.9 | 12.5 |
| Coachella | C | 3.0 | 15.4 |
The five graded California towns closest to Palm Springs’ population (45,315), by grade.
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.
- One number for all of Palm Springs. A town-wide rate doesn’t show where incidents happen, and that can differ a lot from one part of town to another.
- Visitors count too. Incidents involving people who work, shop or visit are counted against Palm Springs’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (45,657 in 2025); our figure for Palm Springs is 45,315 (2025 Census estimate).
- 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 Palm Springs
Is Palm Springs, CA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Palm Springs reports more crime per resident than 92% of U.S. towns, a D Safety Grade and #371 of 416 in California. Its police reported 5.6 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 4.8 in the rest of California and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Palm Springs?
5.6 violent and 32.7 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of California reports 4.8 and 21.3; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
How many homicides were there in Palm Springs in 2025?
Palm Springs’s police reported 3 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 6.6 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Is Palm Springs safer than Cathedral City?
Cathedral City reports less crime per resident than Palm Springs: Cathedral City grades C+ for safety and Palm Springs D. Cathedral City’s police reported 3.0 violent and 12.4 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Palm Springs?
Palm Springs’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Palm Springs”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
Neighbors looking out for each other in Palm Springs.
Crime: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Crime Data Explorer: offenses known to law enforcement by city, 2025, 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.