East Palo Alto, CA carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 73% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, East Palo Alto, CA shows violent crime at 607.3 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,919.5 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 73% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade F from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
F safety grade
607.3/100K violent
1919.5/100K property
+73% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for East Palo Alto, CA
Comparable rate records
East Palo Alto's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to East Palo Alto's 607.3 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are San Jose (606.8), Antioch (606.8), Yucca Valley (605.6), Palm Springs (603.4). 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
East Palo Alto reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable California cities
At 607.3 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, East Palo Alto ranks 83 of 458 — above 375 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +84.9% 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 495.9 per 100,000 in 2020 to 607.3 in 2024 (+22.5%). The highest observed value was 643.9 in 2022 and the lowest 495.9 in 2020. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 24.0% of the 699 Part I offenses reported in East Palo Alto for 2024, against a median of 17.1% across comparable California cities — a gap of 6.9 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.
Property counts dominate East Palo Alto'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.
East Palo Alto's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 2.5 Census sq mi, East Palo Alto logged 210 property and 66.5 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
East Palo Alto leans on larceny-theft at 54% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,434.
Violent offenses are 24% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (2.5 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Property rate moved most (2023→2024)
Property Crime Rate
-11.9%
2178 → 1919.5/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-0.7%
611.4 → 607.3/100K
Property offenses lead East Palo Alto's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
531
1919.5
1711
Larceny-Theft
374
1352
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
127
459.1
-
Burglary
30
108.4
-
Arson
12
43.4
-
Violent Crime
168
607.3
352
Aggravated Assault
81
292.8
-
Robbery
59
213.3
-
Rape
26
94
-
Murder
2
7.2
-
East Palo Alto 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.
East Palo Alto 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
East Palo Alto Police Department
Reporting agency for East Palo Alto NIBRS-participating
East Palo Alto Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind East Palo Alto's 699 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 East Palo Alto in population. Their populations run from 26,702 to 28,792, against 27,663 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
East Palo Alto at 607.3/100K violent and 1,919.5/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, East Palo Alto reported 168 violent crimes and 531 property crimes, for a total of 699 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in East Palo Alto?
From 2023 to 2024, East Palo Alto's violent crime rate decreased by 0.7%, and the property crime rate decreased by 11.9%.
What is the most common crime in East Palo Alto?
The most common crime type in East Palo Alto is larceny-theft, accounting for 53.5% of all reported crimes (374 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: East Palo Alto 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 East Palo Alto, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.