Photo: Stephen Gold · Public domainSebastopol reports more crime per resident than 73% of U.S. towns
On crimes reported to the FBI by Sebastopol’s police in 2023–2025, it grades C for safety: #215 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 Sebastopol
1 of the 1 graded towns next door reports less crime
Of the 1 California towns on Sebastopol’s borders, 1 have a Safety Grade: Santa Rosa (C). Neighbors ↓
Among California towns, closer to the middle
California’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Sebastopol’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 48% of the 416 California towns we grade, against 27% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Sebastopol’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; property crime is the closer of the two to typical. Its property rate (14.6) 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.
For every 1,000 residents, about 11 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
Sebastopol’s police reported 85 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 3.9 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 | Sebastopol | Rest of California | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 4.5 | 5.1 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 3.7 | 5.4 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 4.2 | 4.9 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 3.7 | 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 | Sebastopol property | Rest of California property | Sebastopol violent | Rest of California violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 17.0 | 24.8 | 4.5 | 5.1 |
| 2023 | 17.0 | 25.0 | 3.7 | 5.4 |
| 2024 | 15.8 | 20.8 | 4.2 | 4.9 |
| 2025 | 11.1 | 18.5 | 3.7 | 4.3 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
109 crimes reported in 2025
27 violent and 82 property, as reported to the FBI by Sebastopol’s police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
One person died in crashes on Sebastopol’s roads in 2019–2023
Sebastopol had 1 fatal crash in five years, in which one person died.
That is about what is typical for California towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (5.6 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Sebastopol’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Sebastopol’s own rate (2.7) is context, not a ranking.
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.
Sebastopol and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sebastopol | C | 3.9 | 14.6 |
| Santa Rosa | C | 3.2 | 14.0 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
California towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sebastopol | C | 3.9 | 14.6 |
| Fairfax | B | 1.2 | 8.5 |
| Ojai | B | 1.7 | 7.6 |
| Escalon | C+ | 3.5 | 11.0 |
| Westlake Village | C+ | 1.7 | 18.2 |
| Huron | C− | 7.6 | 4.6 |
The five graded California towns closest to Sebastopol’s population (7,532), 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 Sebastopol. 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 Sebastopol’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (7,356 in 2025); our figure for Sebastopol is 7,532 (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 Sebastopol
Is Sebastopol, CA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Sebastopol reports more crime per resident than 73% of U.S. towns, a C Safety Grade and #215 of 416 in California. Its police reported 3.9 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 Sebastopol?
3.9 violent and 14.6 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 Sebastopol?
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings.
Is Sebastopol safer than Santa Rosa?
Santa Rosa reports less crime per resident than Sebastopol: Santa Rosa grades C for safety and Sebastopol C. Santa Rosa’s police reported 3.2 violent and 14.0 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Sebastopol?
Sebastopol’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Sebastopol”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Sebastopol.
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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.