Fullerton, CA has a D safety grade (37/100) with a violent crime rate of 455 per 100,000, 29% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Fullerton, CA Crime Rate & Safety
At 137,942 residents, Fullerton is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against CA and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Fullerton, CA carries a PlainCrime D safety grade with violent crime 29% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Fullerton, CA shows violent crime at 455.3 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,024 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 29% 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
455.3/100K violent
2024/100K property
+29% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Fullerton, CA
Comparable rate records
Fullerton's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Fullerton's 455.3 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Lakewood (453.0), Oceanside (458.7), Pittsburg (460.2), Lindsay (449.8). 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher
Across 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 303.6 per 100,000 in 2020 to 455.3 in 2024 (+50.0%). The highest observed value was 455.3 in 2024 and the lowest 303.6 in 2020. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Position in the state cohort
Fullerton sits mid-pack among comparable California cities
At 455.3 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Fullerton ranks 158 of 458 — above 300 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +38.6% 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.
Property counts dominate Fullerton'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.
On a large city row, these are citywide reported offense totals - not neighbourhood advice. Conditions vary by place and time; reporting rates differ across jurisdictions.
Fullerton's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 22.4 Census sq mi, Fullerton logged 124.5 property and 28 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Fullerton's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (60% of 3,420 offenses; mix index 4,036).
Violent offenses are 18% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (22.4 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
-14.6%
2371.1 → 2024/100K
Violent Crime Rate
+5.9%
429.8 → 455.3/100K
Property offenses lead Fullerton's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
2,792
2024
1711
Larceny-Theft
2,051
1486.9
-
Burglary
451
326.9
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
290
210.2
-
Arson
19
13.8
-
Violent Crime
628
455.3
352
Aggravated Assault
457
331.3
-
Robbery
125
90.6
-
Rape
45
32.6
-
Murder
1
0.7
-
Fullerton 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.
Fullerton 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
Fullerton Police Department
Reporting agency for Fullerton NIBRS-participating
Fullerton Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Fullerton's 3,420 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 Fullerton in population. Their populations run from 131,901 to 147,170, against 137,942 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Fullerton at 455.3/100K violent and 2,024/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Fullerton reported 628 violent crimes and 2,792 property crimes, for a total of 3,420 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Fullerton?
From 2023 to 2024, Fullerton's violent crime rate increased by 5.9%, and the property crime rate decreased by 14.6%.
What is the most common crime in Fullerton?
The most common crime type in Fullerton is larceny-theft, accounting for 60.0% of all reported crimes (2,051 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Fullerton's rates come from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, CIUS Table 8, vintage 2024.
Incomplete reporters stay out of rate rankings. Cross-check population with Census ACS; state UCR programs for statewide context. Primary verify links: FBI.gov UCR, Census QuickFacts.
Disclaimer (large city): informational crime rates only - not legal, insurance, or personal-safety advice. Source: FBI UCR. Ask a qualified professional before acting.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Fullerton, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.