La Mesa, CA has a C safety grade (47/100) with a violent crime rate of 416 per 100,000, 18% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
La Mesa, CA Crime Rate & Safety
At 60,352 residents, La Mesa 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.
La Mesa, CA carries a PlainCrime C safety grade with violent crime 18% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, La Mesa, CA shows violent crime at 415.9 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,378.6 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 18% 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
415.9/100K violent
1378.6/100K property
+18% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for La Mesa, CA
Comparable rate records
La Mesa's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to La Mesa's 415.9 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Twentynine Palms (417.6), San Diego (412.2), Lemoore (411.9), Carson (420.0). 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 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 304.3 per 100,000 in 2020 to 415.9 in 2024 (+36.7%). The highest observed value was 415.9 in 2024 and the lowest 304.3 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 23.2% of the 1,083 Part I offenses reported in La Mesa for 2024, against a median of 17.1% across comparable California cities — a gap of 6.1 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
La Mesa sits mid-pack among comparable California cities
At 415.9 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, La Mesa ranks 178 of 458 — above 280 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +26.6% 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 La Mesa'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.
La Mesa's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 9.1 Census sq mi, La Mesa logged 91.5 property and 27.6 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
La Mesa leans on larceny-theft at 50% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,186.
Violent offenses are 23% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (9.1 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
-18%
1681.4 → 1378.6/100K
Violent Crime Rate
+8.5%
383.3 → 415.9/100K
Property offenses lead La Mesa's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs CA
Property Crime
832
1378.6
1985.9
Larceny-Theft
541
896.4
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
158
261.8
-
Burglary
133
220.4
-
Arson
7
11.6
-
Violent Crime
251
415.9
476.8
Aggravated Assault
189
313.2
-
Robbery
50
82.8
-
Rape
8
13.3
-
Murder
4
6.6
-
La Mesa Crime Trend (2020-2024)
La Mesa 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
La Mesa Police Department
Reporting agency for La Mesa NIBRS-participating
La Mesa Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind La Mesa's 1,083 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 La Mesa in population. Their populations run from 59,231 to 61,346, against 60,352 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
La Mesa at 415.9/100K violent and 1,378.6/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, La Mesa reported 251 violent crimes and 832 property crimes, for a total of 1,083 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in La Mesa?
From 2023 to 2024, La Mesa's violent crime rate increased by 8.5%, and the property crime rate decreased by 18%.
What is the most common crime in La Mesa?
The most common crime type in La Mesa is larceny-theft, accounting for 50.0% of all reported crimes (541 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: La Mesa'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 La Mesa, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.