El Cerrito, CA carries a PlainCrime D safety grade with violent crime 36% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, El Cerrito, CA shows violent crime at 479.9 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 3,044.4 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 36% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade D from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
D safety grade
479.9/100K violent
3044.4/100K property
+36% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for El Cerrito, CA
Comparable rate records
El Cerrito's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to El Cerrito's 479.9 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Pasadena (480.4), Seal Beach (481.7), Hayward (477.1), Jackson (482.9). 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
El Cerrito sits mid-pack among comparable California cities
At 479.9 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, El Cerrito ranks 144 of 458 — above 314 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +46.1% 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.
Offense mix
The reported mix leans further toward property offenses than the state cohort
Violent offenses are 13.6% of the 896 Part I offenses reported in El Cerrito for 2024, against a median of 17.1% across comparable California cities — a gap of 3.5 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 443.1 per 100,000 in 2020 to 479.9 in 2024 (+8.3%). The highest observed value was 500.1 in 2023 and the lowest 218.9 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate El Cerrito'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.
El Cerrito's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 3.7 Census sq mi, El Cerrito logged 210.8 property and 33.2 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
El Cerrito's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (64% of 896 offenses; mix index 4,441).
Violent offenses are only 14% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (3.7 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
-24.6%
4036.5 → 3044.4/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-4%
500.1 → 479.9/100K
Property offenses lead El Cerrito's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
774
3044.4
1711
Larceny-Theft
573
2253.8
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
115
452.3
-
Burglary
86
338.3
-
Arson
14
55.1
-
Violent Crime
122
479.9
352
Robbery
73
287.1
-
Aggravated Assault
45
177
-
Rape
4
15.7
-
Murder
0
0
-
El Cerrito Crime Trend (2020-2024)
El Cerrito 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
El Cerrito Police Department
Reporting agency for El Cerrito NIBRS-participating
El Cerrito Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind El Cerrito's 896 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 El Cerrito in population. Their populations run from 25,043 to 25,660, against 25,424 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
El Cerrito at 479.9/100K violent and 3,044.4/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, El Cerrito reported 122 violent crimes and 774 property crimes, for a total of 896 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in El Cerrito?
From 2023 to 2024, El Cerrito's violent crime rate decreased by 4%, and the property crime rate decreased by 24.6%.
What is the most common crime in El Cerrito?
The most common crime type in El Cerrito is larceny-theft, accounting for 64.0% of all reported crimes (573 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: El Cerrito 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 El Cerrito, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.