Photo: Mike Greene · CC BY-SA 2.0Signal Hill reports more crime per resident than 98% of U.S. towns
It has more violent crime than 94% of U.S. towns, and more property crime than 99%. What’s more, recorded violent crimes ran at 7.1 per 1,000 residents a year and property crime at 54.4, against 4.9 and 21.4 in the rest of California. On the record of crimes Signal Hill’s police reported from 2023 to 2025, it takes D− for safety: #406 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 Signal Hill
A job center
Signal Hill has 13,297 jobs based in town for 11,153 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 Signal Hill’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.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Signal Hill | Rest of California | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 7.3 | 5.1 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 6.8 | 5.4 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 9.1 | 4.9 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 5.4 | 4.3 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Signal Hill’s police reported 237 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 7.1 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 Signal Hill 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.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | Signal Hill property | Rest of California property | Signal Hill violent | Rest of California violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 61.8 | 24.8 | 7.3 | 5.1 |
| 2023 | 53.7 | 24.9 | 6.8 | 5.4 |
| 2024 | 59.2 | 20.8 | 9.1 | 4.9 |
| 2025 | 50.2 | 18.5 | 5.4 | 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.
620 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.
60 violent and 560 property, as reported to the FBI by Signal Hill’s police.
Eight people died in crashes on Signal Hill’s roads in 2019–2023
Signal Hill had 8 fatal crashes in five years, in which eight people died; 4 were pedestrians. 2 died in crashes on an Interstate.
That is more than 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 Signal Hill’s size would see about 3 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Signal Hill’s own rate (14.0) 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.
Signal Hill and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signal Hill | D− | 7.1 | 54.4 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
California towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signal Hill | D− | 7.1 | 54.4 |
| Canyon Lake | A− | 0.6 | 6.7 |
| Hillsborough | B+ | 1.0 | 6.3 |
| Calimesa | C+ | 1.5 | 19.1 |
| Healdsburg | C+ | 3.3 | 12.2 |
| Anderson | D | 7.1 | 18.2 |
The five graded California towns closest to Signal Hill’s population (11,153), 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 Signal Hill. 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 Signal Hill’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (11,149 in 2025); our figure for Signal Hill is 11,153 (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 Signal Hill
Is Signal Hill, CA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Signal Hill reports more crime per resident than 98% of U.S. towns, a D− Safety Grade and #406 of 416 in California. Its police reported 7.1 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 Signal Hill?
7.1 violent and 54.4 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.
Who polices Signal Hill?
Signal Hill’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Signal Hill”. 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 Signal Hill.
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.