Photo: Traveler100 · CC BY-SA 3.0Seal Beach reports more crime per resident than 86% of U.S. towns
On crimes reported to the FBI by Seal Beach’s police in 2023–2025, it grades D for safety: #331 of 416 graded towns in California.
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 Seal Beach
4 of the 5 graded towns next door report less crime
Of the 6 California towns on Seal Beach’s borders, 5 have a Safety Grade: Garden Grove (C+), Huntington Beach (C), Los Alamitos (C−), Westminster (C−), Long Beach (D). Rossmoor is an unincorporated community (a census-designated place) with no police department of its own. Neighbors ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Seal Beach’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.
For every 1,000 residents, about 25 property crimes reported
And about 4 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.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Seal Beach’s police reported 305 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 4.2 per 1,000 residents a year, against 4.9 in the rest of California and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Seal Beach | Rest of California | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 3.2 | 5.1 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 3.9 | 5.4 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 4.8 | 4.9 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 3.8 | 4.3 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Reported crime is steady
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.
Show as a table
| Year | Seal Beach property | Rest of California property | Seal Beach violent | Rest of California violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 24.4 | 24.8 | 3.2 | 5.1 |
| 2023 | 27.0 | 25.0 | 3.9 | 5.4 |
| 2024 | 27.5 | 20.8 | 4.8 | 4.9 |
| 2025 | 25.3 | 18.5 | 3.8 | 4.3 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
707 crimes reported in 2025
93 violent and 614 property, as reported to the FBI by Seal Beach’s police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
16 people died in crashes on Seal Beach’s roads in 2019–2023
Seal Beach had 15 fatal crashes in five years, in which 16 people died; 2 were pedestrians and 2 were cyclists. Most of these deaths (9 of 16) were on an Interstate passing through, so they say more about through-traffic than about the town’s own streets.
That is 12.9 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for California towns of 5,000–25,000 people (5.6, 355 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.
Seal Beach and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seal Beach | D | 4.2 | 26.6 |
| Huntington Beach | C | 2.0 | 18.2 |
| Rossmoor | — | — | — |
| Long Beach | D | 6.4 | 30.0 |
| Los Alamitos | C− | 3.3 | 19.4 |
| Westminster | C− | 4.0 | 24.2 |
| Garden Grove | C+ | 2.3 | 14.2 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Rossmoor 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seal Beach | D | 4.2 | 26.6 |
| Shafter | C | 3.1 | 16.1 |
| Maywood | C− | 5.5 | 14.1 |
| San Fernando | C− | 3.7 | 21.2 |
| Selma | C− | 5.4 | 15.7 |
| Barstow | D− | 11.0 | 27.0 |
The five graded California towns closest to Seal Beach’s population (24,075), by grade.
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 Seal Beach. 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 Seal Beach’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (24,232 in 2025); our figure for Seal Beach is 24,075 (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 Seal Beach
Is Seal Beach, CA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Seal Beach reports more crime per resident than 86% of U.S. towns, a D Safety Grade and #331 of 416 in California. Its police reported 4.2 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 Seal Beach?
4.2 violent and 26.6 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of California reports 4.9 and 21.4; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is crime going up or down in Seal Beach?
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings.
Is Seal Beach safer than Huntington Beach?
Huntington Beach reports less crime per resident than Seal Beach: Huntington Beach grades C for safety and Seal Beach D. Huntington Beach’s police reported 2.0 violent and 18.2 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Seal Beach?
Seal Beach’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Seal Beach”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Seal Beach.
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
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.