Photo: Sanfranman59 · CC BY-SA 3.0Per resident, Palo Alto records more property crime than nine in ten U.S. towns
Its letter overall is C− (#288 of 416 graded towns in California): more crime per resident than 81% of U.S. towns, from crimes its police reported through 2023 to 2025. Even so, for every 1,000 residents, 1.9 violent crimes and 29.0 incidents of property crime were logged a year; in the rest of California, the figures are 4.9 and 21.3. Of the 5 towns on its borders with figures, 3 record less crime per resident.
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 Palo Alto
3 of the 5 graded towns next door report less crime
Of the 7 California towns on Palo Alto’s borders, 5 have a Safety Grade: Los Altos Hills (A−), Los Altos (B), Menlo Park (C+), Mountain View (C−), East Palo Alto (C−). Stanford is an unincorporated community (a census-designated place) with no police department of its own. Portola Valley has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025. Neighbors ↓
Among California towns, closer to the middle
California’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Palo Alto’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 31% of the 416 California towns we grade, against 19% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
A job center
Palo Alto has 104,691 jobs based in town for 67,609 residents (Census LEHD), so some reports involve people who work or shop there rather than residents. How to read it ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Palo Alto’s 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. Its violent rate (1.9) is below the FBI’s national estimate (3.6) but higher than in most individual towns: the national figure is weighted by people, and the grade counts towns.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Palo Alto | Rest of California | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2.1 | 5.1 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 2.1 | 5.4 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 2.1 | 4.9 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.6 | 4.3 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Palo Alto’s police reported 380 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.9 per 1,000 residents a year, against 4.9 in the rest of California and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Palo Alto 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 2 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | Palo Alto property | Rest of California property | Palo Alto violent | Rest of California violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 30.0 | 24.8 | 2.1 | 5.1 |
| 2023 | 28.0 | 24.9 | 2.1 | 5.4 |
| 2024 | 30.3 | 20.8 | 2.1 | 4.9 |
| 2025 | 28.6 | 18.5 | 1.6 | 4.3 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2022–2025, against the rest of California.
2,034 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.
107 violent and 1,927 property, as reported to the FBI by Palo Alto’s police.
12 people died in crashes on Palo Alto’s roads in 2019–2023
Palo Alto had 12 fatal crashes in five years, in which 12 people died; 3 were pedestrians and 2 were cyclists.
That is 3.6 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, below 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.
Palo Alto and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palo Alto | C− | 1.9 | 29.0 |
| Menlo Park | C+ | 2.2 | 16.9 |
| Los Altos | B | 0.7 | 10.9 |
| Mountain View | C− | 2.5 | 26.6 |
| Los Altos Hills | A− | 0.5 | 5.5 |
| East Palo Alto | C− | 5.8 | 18.6 |
| Stanford | — | — | — |
| Portola Valley | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Stanford is an unincorporated community (a census-designated place) with no police department of its own. Portola Valley has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025.
California towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palo Alto | C− | 1.9 | 29.0 |
| Camarillo | B | 1.2 | 11.9 |
| Brentwood | C | 2.3 | 20.4 |
| Madera | C | 4.7 | 11.5 |
| Baldwin Park | C | 4.2 | 15.0 |
| Redondo Beach | C− | 2.7 | 24.4 |
The five graded California towns closest to Palo Alto’s population (67,609), 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 Palo Alto. A citywide rate doesn’t show where incidents happen, and that can differ a lot from one part of the city to another.
- Visitors count too. Incidents involving people who work, shop or visit are counted against Palo Alto’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (67,491 in 2025); our figure for Palo Alto is 67,609 (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 Palo Alto
Is Palo Alto, CA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Palo Alto reports more crime per resident than 81% of U.S. towns, a C− Safety Grade and #288 of 416 in California. Its police reported 1.9 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 4.9 in the rest of California and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Palo Alto?
1.9 violent and 29.0 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of California reports 4.9 and 21.3; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
How many homicides were there in Palo Alto in 2025?
Palo Alto’s police reported 0 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 0.0 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Is Palo Alto safer than Menlo Park?
Menlo Park reports less crime per resident than Palo Alto: Menlo Park grades C+ for safety and Palo Alto C−. Menlo Park’s police reported 2.2 violent and 16.9 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Palo Alto?
Palo Alto’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Palo Alto”. 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 Palo Alto.
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.