Photo: Sgerbic · CC BY-SA 4.0Salinas reports more crime per resident than 79% of U.S. towns
On crimes reported to the FBI by Salinas’ police in 2023–2025, it grades C− for safety: #266 of 416 graded towns in California, and #143 of 325 U.S. cities over 100,000.
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 Salinas
Among California towns, closer to the middle
California’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Salinas’ place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 36% of the 416 California towns we grade, against 21% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
Homicides: below U.S. cities overall
Salinas’ police reported 7 homicides to the FBI in 2025. Over 2023–2025 that is 5.0 per 100,000 residents a year, above the rest of California (4.2) and below all U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables (5.7). Violent crime ↓
Robberies: above the rest of California
147 robberies per 100,000 residents a year over 2023–2025 (246 reported in 2025), above the rest of California (123) and 1.9 times all U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables (79.4). Violent crime ↓
Against other big cities
Among the 325 U.S. cities over 100,000 we grade, Salinas reports less crime per resident than 56% (#143). Places like it ↓
Reported crime is rising
Crime reported per resident rose 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 Salinas’ 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; property crime is the closer of the two to typical. Its property rate (14.7) is below the FBI’s national estimate (17.6) but higher than in most individual towns: the national figure is weighted by people, and the grade counts towns.
Homicides and robberies
Salinas’ police reported 7 homicides, 246 robberies and 820 violent crimes in all to the FBI in 2025. By year, against the rest of California and all U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables.
Show as a table
| Year | Salinas | Rest of California | U.S. cities (FBI tables) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 8.0 | 5.6 | 7.7 |
| 2023 | 6.9 | 4.9 | 6.8 |
| 2024 | 3.8 | 4.2 | 5.7 |
| 2025 | 4.4 | 3.4 | 4.6 |
Homicides per 100,000 residents
Show as a table
| Year | Salinas | Rest of California | U.S. cities (FBI tables) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 151 | 135 | 95.5 |
| 2023 | 146 | 141 | 90.6 |
| 2024 | 141 | 127 | 81.9 |
| 2025 | 154 | 101 | 66.0 |
Robberies per 100,000 residents
Reported crime is rising
Reported crime per resident rose from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2022–2025, against the rest of California.
Show as a table
| Year | Salinas property | Rest of California property | Salinas violent | Rest of California violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 16.8 | 24.9 | 5.2 | 5.1 |
| 2023 | 12.9 | 25.0 | 5.0 | 5.4 |
| 2024 | 16.8 | 20.9 | 5.2 | 4.9 |
| 2025 | 14.6 | 18.5 | 5.1 | 4.3 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
For every 1,000 residents, about 15 property crimes reported
And about 5 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
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.
3,156 crimes reported in 2025
820 violent and 2,336 property, as reported to the FBI by Salinas’ police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
24 people died in crashes on Salinas’s roads in 2019–2023
Salinas had 24 fatal crashes in five years, in which 24 people died; 12 were pedestrians.
That is 3.0 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, below 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.
Salinas and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Boronda is an unincorporated community (a census-designated place) with no police department of its own.
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 Salinas. 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 Salinas’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (160,138 in 2025); our figure for Salinas is 159,134 (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 Salinas
Is Salinas, CA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Salinas reports more crime per resident than 79% of U.S. towns, a C− Safety Grade and #266 of 416 in California. Its police reported 5.1 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 Salinas?
5.1 violent and 14.7 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of California reports 4.8 and 21.4; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is crime going up or down in Salinas?
Reported crime per resident rose from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings.
How many homicides were there in Salinas in 2025?
Salinas’s police reported 7 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 4.4 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Who polices Salinas?
Salinas’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Salinas”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Salinas.
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
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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.