Atascadero, CA carries a PlainCrime B safety grade with violent crime 49% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Atascadero, CA shows violent crime at 178.5 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 970.2 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 49% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade B from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
B safety grade
178.5/100K violent
970.2/100K property
-49% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Atascadero, CA
Comparable rate records
Atascadero's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Atascadero's 178.5 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Fountain Valley (178.3), Sonoma (179.5), La Quinta (177.1), Waterford (181.1). These are same-year agency submissions that pass the same completeness screen, not a claim that the cities have identical conditions. They make the cohort position above checkable against named records instead of a generic state average.
Position in the state cohort
Atascadero reported a lower violent-crime rate than most comparable California cities
At 178.5 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Atascadero ranks 356 of 458 — above 102 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -46.4% against the cohort median of 333.1. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 277.5 per 100,000 in 2020 to 178.5 in 2024 (-35.7%). The highest observed value was 397.6 in 2022 and the lowest 178.5 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property-offense composition
Larceny-theft dominates the property total more than it does across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 80.6% of reported property offenses in Atascadero, against a cohort median of 69.5%. The remainder is burglary (28) and motor vehicle theft (28). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Atascadero's FBI UCR Table 8 municipal row. Per-100,000 rates use the reporting-year population on that row; cities that fail the completeness test stay out of rate rankings. A citywide figure rarely describes any single neighbourhood inside the municipal boundary.
Mid-size municipal totals above are reported offenses, not safety advice for any single block. Reporting completeness still varies by year and agency.
Atascadero's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 26.1 Census sq mi, Atascadero logged 11 property and 2 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Atascadero's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (68% of 341 offenses; mix index 4,891).
Violent offenses are 16% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (26.1 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
-26.5%
242.8 → 178.5/100K
Property Crime Rate
-5%
1021.6 → 970.2/100K
Property offenses lead Atascadero's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs CA
Property Crime
288
970.2
1985.9
Larceny-Theft
232
781.5
-
Burglary
28
94.3
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
28
94.3
-
Arson
1
3.4
-
Violent Crime
53
178.5
476.8
Aggravated Assault
37
124.6
-
Robbery
8
26.9
-
Rape
7
23.6
-
Murder
1
3.4
-
Atascadero Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Atascadero property crime rate trend
Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Atascadero Police Department
Reporting agency for Atascadero NIBRS-participating
Atascadero Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Atascadero's 341 reported offenses (5-year span 2020-2024).
This agency reports via NIBRS, the incident-based system that captures more detail per offense (multiple crimes per incident, victim/offender data) than the older summary counts.
Similar-Size Cities in California
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the California cities closest to Atascadero in population. Their populations run from 28,976 to 30,457, against 29,685 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Atascadero at 178.5/100K violent and 970.2/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Atascadero reported 53 violent crimes and 288 property crimes, for a total of 341 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Atascadero?
From 2023 to 2024, Atascadero's violent crime rate decreased by 26.5%, and the property crime rate decreased by 5%.
What is the most common crime in Atascadero?
The most common crime type in Atascadero is larceny-theft, accounting for 68.0% of all reported crimes (232 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Atascadero figures are FBI UCR CIUS Table 8 (vintage 2024), population-adjusted per 100,000.
Denominators are the reporting-year population on the municipal row. Incomplete years are dropped from rankings. Confirm at FBI Crime Data Explorer and Census.gov QuickFacts.
Disclaimer (mid-size municipal): figures are informational, not advice. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is the source. Consult a professional before decisions.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Atascadero, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.