Lake Forest, CA has a A safety grade (78/100) with a violent crime rate of 146 per 100,000, 59% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Lake Forest, CA Crime Rate & Safety
At 85,811 residents, Lake Forest 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.
Lake Forest, CA carries a PlainCrime A safety grade with violent crime 59% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Lake Forest, CA shows violent crime at 145.7 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 829.7 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 59% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade A from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
A safety grade
145.7/100K violent
829.7/100K property
-59% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Lake Forest, CA
Comparable rate records
Lake Forest's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Lake Forest's 145.7 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Norco (145.6), Pacifica (145.4), Wheatland (145.3), Oakley (146.1). 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
Lake Forest reported a lower violent-crime rate than most comparable California cities
At 145.7 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Lake Forest ranks 385 of 458 — above 73 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -56.3% 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 109.9 per 100,000 in 2020 to 145.7 in 2024 (+32.6%). The highest observed value was 145.7 in 2024 and the lowest 63.8 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Lake Forest'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.
Lake Forest's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 16.7 Census sq mi, Lake Forest logged 42.6 property and 7.5 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Lake Forest leans on larceny-theft at 58% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,897.
Violent offenses are only 15% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (16.7 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
-16.7%
996.1 → 829.7/100K
Violent Crime Rate
+9.3%
133.3 → 145.7/100K
Property offenses lead Lake Forest's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs CA
Property Crime
712
829.7
1985.9
Larceny-Theft
487
567.5
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
133
155
-
Burglary
92
107.2
-
Arson
7
8.2
-
Violent Crime
125
145.7
476.8
Aggravated Assault
94
109.5
-
Robbery
28
32.6
-
Rape
3
3.5
-
Murder
0
0
-
Lake Forest Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Lake Forest 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
Lake Forest Police Department
Reporting agency for Lake Forest NIBRS-participating
Lake Forest Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Lake Forest's 837 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 Lake Forest in population. Their populations run from 83,186 to 88,026, against 85,811 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Lake Forest at 145.7/100K violent and 829.7/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Lake Forest reported 125 violent crimes and 712 property crimes, for a total of 837 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Lake Forest?
From 2023 to 2024, Lake Forest's violent crime rate increased by 9.3%, and the property crime rate decreased by 16.7%.
What is the most common crime in Lake Forest?
The most common crime type in Lake Forest is larceny-theft, accounting for 58.2% of all reported crimes (487 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Lake Forest'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 Lake Forest, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.