Novato, CA has a B safety grade (63/100) with a violent crime rate of 254 per 100,000, 28% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Novato, CA Crime Rate & Safety
At 51,258 residents, Novato 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.
Novato, CA carries a PlainCrime B safety grade with violent crime 28% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Novato, CA shows violent crime at 253.6 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,353.9 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 28% 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
253.6/100K violent
1353.9/100K property
-28% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Novato, CA
Comparable rate records
Novato's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Novato's 253.6 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are San Jacinto (254.2), Santee (254.4), Newport Beach (251.8), San Bruno (256.5). 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 lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 425.6 per 100,000 in 2020 to 253.6 in 2024 (-40.4%). The highest observed value was 425.6 in 2020 and the lowest 13.1 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Position in the state cohort
Novato sits mid-pack among comparable California cities
At 253.6 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Novato ranks 291 of 458 — above 167 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -23.9% 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.
Property-offense composition
Larceny-theft dominates the property total more than it does across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 82.3% of reported property offenses in Novato, against a cohort median of 69.5%. The remainder is burglary (40) and motor vehicle theft (83). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Novato'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.
Novato's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 27.4 Census sq mi, Novato logged 25.4 property and 4.7 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Novato's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (69% of 824 offenses; mix index 5,062).
Violent offenses are 16% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (27.4 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Both rates shifted (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
-22.8%
328.6 → 253.6/100K
Property Crime Rate
-21.7%
1730 → 1353.9/100K
Property offenses lead Novato's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs CA
Property Crime
694
1353.9
1985.9
Larceny-Theft
571
1114
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
83
161.9
-
Burglary
40
78
-
Arson
19
37.1
-
Violent Crime
130
253.6
476.8
Aggravated Assault
89
173.6
-
Robbery
24
46.8
-
Rape
17
33.2
-
Murder
0
0
-
Novato 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.
Novato 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
Novato Police Department
Reporting agency for Novato NIBRS-participating
Novato Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Novato's 824 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 Novato in population. Their populations run from 49,948 to 52,205, against 51,258 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Novato at 253.6/100K violent and 1,353.9/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Novato reported 130 violent crimes and 694 property crimes, for a total of 824 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Novato?
From 2023 to 2024, Novato's violent crime rate decreased by 22.8%, and the property crime rate decreased by 21.7%.
What is the most common crime in Novato?
The most common crime type in Novato is larceny-theft, accounting for 69.3% of all reported crimes (571 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Novato'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 Novato, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.