Grass Valley, CA carries a PlainCrime D safety grade with violent crime 53% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Grass Valley, CA shows violent crime at 540.2 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,146.4 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 53% 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
540.2/100K violent
2146.4/100K property
+53% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Grass Valley, CA
Comparable rate records
Grass Valley's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Grass Valley's 540.2 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Imperial Beach (538.7), Highland (534.5), Paramount (547.1), San Leandro (548.7). 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
Grass Valley reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable California cities
At 540.2 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Grass Valley ranks 110 of 458 — above 348 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +64.4% 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
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 20.1% of the 378 Part I offenses reported in Grass Valley for 2024, against a median of 17.1% across comparable California cities — a gap of 3.0 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 close to where it started
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 538.6 per 100,000 in 2020 to 540.2 in 2024 (+0.3%). The highest observed value was 1245.1 in 2022 and the lowest 141.2 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Grass Valley'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.
Grass Valley's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 6 Census sq mi, Grass Valley logged 50.4 property and 12.7 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Grass Valley leans on larceny-theft at 53% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,453.
Violent offenses are 20% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (6 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
-41.8%
928.6 → 540.2/100K
Property Crime Rate
-17.6%
2605.8 → 2146.4/100K
Property offenses lead Grass Valley's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
302
2146.4
1711
Larceny-Theft
201
1428.6
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
61
433.5
-
Burglary
40
284.3
-
Arson
8
56.9
-
Violent Crime
76
540.2
352
Aggravated Assault
58
412.2
-
Rape
13
92.4
-
Robbery
5
35.5
-
Murder
0
0
-
Grass Valley 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.
Grass Valley 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
Grass Valley Police Department
Reporting agency for Grass Valley NIBRS-participating
Grass Valley Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Grass Valley's 378 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 Grass Valley in population. Their populations run from 13,618 to 14,649, against 14,070 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Grass Valley at 540.2/100K violent and 2,146.4/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Grass Valley reported 76 violent crimes and 302 property crimes, for a total of 378 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Grass Valley?
From 2023 to 2024, Grass Valley's violent crime rate decreased by 41.8%, and the property crime rate decreased by 17.6%.
What is the most common crime in Grass Valley?
The most common crime type in Grass Valley is larceny-theft, accounting for 53.2% of all reported crimes (201 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Grass Valley 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 Grass Valley, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.