Bell Gardens, CA carries a PlainCrime C safety grade with violent crime 10% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Bell Gardens, CA shows violent crime at 388.1 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,476.3 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 10% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade C from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
C safety grade
388.1/100K violent
1476.3/100K property
+10% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Bell Gardens, CA
Comparable rate records
Bell Gardens's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Bell Gardens's 388.1 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Suisun City (389.4), Burbank (390.6), Porterville (384.8), Hermosa Beach (393.2). 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.
Property-offense composition
Burglary and vehicle theft carry more of the property total than they do across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 56.6% of reported property offenses in Bell Gardens, against a cohort median of 69.5%. The remainder is burglary (50) and motor vehicle theft (186). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 20.8% of the 687 Part I offenses reported in Bell Gardens for 2024, against a median of 17.1% across comparable California cities — a gap of 3.7 points. Offense mix is shaped by which agencies report and how incidents are classified as well as by the underlying offenses, so it describes the reported record rather than a settled difference in conditions.
Position in the state cohort
Bell Gardens sits mid-pack among comparable California cities
At 388.1 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Bell Gardens ranks 199 of 458 — above 259 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +18.1% against the cohort median of 328.5. 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 higher
Across 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 357.1 per 100,000 in 2020 to 388.1 in 2024 (+8.7%). The highest observed value was 446.0 in 2023 and the lowest 357.1 in 2020. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Bell Gardens'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.
Bell Gardens's 2024 municipal footprint
Bell Gardens leans on larceny-theft at 45% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,006.
Violent offenses are 21% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (when validated); 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
-13%
446 → 388.1/100K
Property Crime Rate
-2.1%
1507.2 → 1476.3/100K
Property offenses lead Bell Gardens's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs CA
Property Crime
544
1476.3
1985.9
Larceny-Theft
308
835.8
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
186
504.7
-
Burglary
50
135.7
-
Arson
19
51.6
-
Violent Crime
143
388.1
476.8
Aggravated Assault
84
228
-
Robbery
49
133
-
Rape
9
24.4
-
Murder
1
2.7
-
Bell Gardens Crime Trend (2020-2024)
The chart omits 2021 rather than drawing an unsupported zero or partial-coverage dip. The table preserves the year and marks the gap.
Bell Gardens property crime rate trend
Lead series · fell across 4 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Bell Gardens Police Department
Reporting agency for Bell Gardens NIBRS-participating
Bell Gardens Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Bell Gardens's 687 reported offenses (4-year span 2020-2024, with internal gaps).
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 Bell Gardens in population. Their populations run from 35,759 to 38,106, against 36,850 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Bell Gardens at 388.1/100K violent and 1,476.3/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Bell Gardens reported 143 violent crimes and 544 property crimes, for a total of 687 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Bell Gardens?
From 2023 to 2024, Bell Gardens's violent crime rate decreased by 13%, and the property crime rate decreased by 2.1%.
What is the most common crime in Bell Gardens?
The most common crime type in Bell Gardens is larceny-theft, accounting for 44.8% of all reported crimes (308 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Bell Gardens 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 Bell Gardens, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.