La Palma, CA carries a PlainCrime B safety grade with violent crime 41% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, La Palma, CA shows violent crime at 208.7 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,824.2 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 41% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade B from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
B safety grade
208.7/100K violent
1824.2/100K property
-41% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for La Palma, CA
Comparable rate records
La Palma's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to La Palma's 208.7 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Sierra Madre (208.6), Huntington Beach (207.3), South Pasadena (210.1), Brea (210.6). 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
La Palma sits mid-pack among comparable California cities
At 208.7 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, La Palma ranks 325 of 458 — above 133 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -37.4% against the cohort median of 333.1. 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 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 162.2 per 100,000 in 2020 to 208.7 in 2024 (+28.7%). The highest observed value was 242.8 in 2022 and the lowest 106.6 in 2023. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Offense mix
The reported mix leans further toward property offenses than the state cohort
Violent offenses are 10.3% of the 302 Part I offenses reported in La Palma 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 La Palma'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.
La Palma's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 1.8 Census sq mi, La Palma logged 152.2 property and 17.4 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
La Palma's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (59% of 302 offenses; mix index 4,027).
Violent offenses are only 10% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (1.8 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
+95.8%
106.6 → 208.7/100K
Property Crime Rate
-16.7%
2191.1 → 1824.2/100K
Property offenses lead La Palma's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs CA
Property Crime
271
1824.2
1985.9
Larceny-Theft
179
1204.9
-
Burglary
52
350
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
40
269.3
-
Arson
0
0
-
Violent Crime
31
208.7
476.8
Aggravated Assault
15
101
-
Robbery
12
80.8
-
Rape
4
26.9
-
Murder
0
0
-
La Palma Crime Trend (2020-2024)
La Palma 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 Palma Police Department
Reporting agency for La Palma NIBRS-participating
La Palma Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind La Palma's 302 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 Palma in population. Their populations run from 14,070 to 15,358, against 14,856 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
La Palma at 208.7/100K violent and 1,824.2/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, La Palma reported 31 violent crimes and 271 property crimes, for a total of 302 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in La Palma?
From 2023 to 2024, La Palma's violent crime rate increased by 95.8%, and the property crime rate decreased by 16.7%.
What is the most common crime in La Palma?
The most common crime type in La Palma is larceny-theft, accounting for 59.3% of all reported crimes (179 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: La Palma 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 La Palma, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.