San Luis Obispo, CA carries a PlainCrime D safety grade with violent crime 21% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, San Luis Obispo, CA shows violent crime at 424.4 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,668.8 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 21% 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
424.4/100K violent
2668.8/100K property
+21% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for San Luis Obispo, CA
Comparable rate records
San Luis Obispo's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to San Luis Obispo's 424.4 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Hemet (424.8), Yuba City (423.8), El Monte (423.2), Rancho Cordova (425.7). 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
San Luis Obispo sits mid-pack among comparable California cities
At 424.4 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, San Luis Obispo ranks 171 of 458 — above 287 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +29.2% 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-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 San Luis Obispo, against a cohort median of 69.5%. The remainder is burglary (161) and motor vehicle theft (75). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Offense mix
The reported mix leans further toward property offenses than the state cohort
Violent offenses are 13.7% of the 1,545 Part I offenses reported in San Luis Obispo for 2024, against a median of 17.1% across comparable California cities — a gap of 3.4 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 lower
Across 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 433.8 per 100,000 in 2020 to 424.4 in 2024 (-2.1%). The highest observed value was 556.4 in 2022 and the lowest 424.4 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate San Luis Obispo'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.
San Luis Obispo's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 13.6 Census sq mi, San Luis Obispo logged 97.7 property and 15.5 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
San Luis Obispo's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (71% of 1,545 offenses; mix index 5,268).
Violent offenses are only 14% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (13.6 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
-18.2%
518.9 → 424.4/100K
Property Crime Rate
+1.3%
2635.5 → 2668.8/100K
Property offenses lead San Luis Obispo's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
1,333
2668.8
1711
Larceny-Theft
1,097
2196.3
-
Burglary
161
322.3
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
75
150.2
-
Arson
2
4
-
Violent Crime
212
424.4
352
Aggravated Assault
141
282.3
-
Robbery
41
82.1
-
Rape
30
60.1
-
Murder
0
0
-
San Luis Obispo 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.
San Luis Obispo 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
San Luis Obispo Police Department
Reporting agency for San Luis Obispo Summary Reporting (SRS)
San Luis Obispo Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind San Luis Obispo's 1,545 reported offenses (4-year span 2020-2024, with internal gaps).
This agency reports via the traditional Summary Reporting System (SRS): aggregate monthly offense counts rather than incident-level detail.
Similar-Size Cities in California
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the California cities closest to San Luis Obispo in population. Their populations run from 48,901 to 51,126, against 49,948 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
San Luis Obispo at 424.4/100K violent and 2,668.8/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, San Luis Obispo reported 212 violent crimes and 1,333 property crimes, for a total of 1,545 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in San Luis Obispo?
From 2023 to 2024, San Luis Obispo's violent crime rate decreased by 18.2%, and the property crime rate increased by 1.3%.
What is the most common crime in San Luis Obispo?
The most common crime type in San Luis Obispo is larceny-theft, accounting for 71.0% of all reported crimes (1,097 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: San Luis Obispo 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 San Luis Obispo, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.