Signal Hill, CA carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 159% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Signal Hill, CA shows violent crime at 912.5 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 5,918 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 159% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade F from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
F safety grade
912.5/100K violent
5918/100K property
+159% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Signal Hill, CA
Position in the state cohort
Signal Hill reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable California cities
At 912.5 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Signal Hill ranks 26 of 458 — above 432 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +177.8% 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.
Comparable rate records
Signal Hill's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Signal Hill's 912.5 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Lynwood (910.0), Bishop (915.2), Isleton (909.1), Needles (918.6). 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher
Across 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 819.7 per 100,000 in 2020 to 912.5 in 2024 (+11.3%). The highest observed value was 912.5 in 2024 and the lowest 689.2 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 13.4% of the 756 Part I offenses reported in Signal Hill for 2024, against a median of 17.1% across comparable California cities — a gap of 3.8 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 Signal Hill'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.
Signal Hill's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 2.2 Census sq mi, Signal Hill logged 299.2 property and 46.1 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Signal Hill's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (60% of 756 offenses; mix index 4,070).
Violent offenses are only 13% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (2.2 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
+32.4%
689.2 → 912.5/100K
Property Crime Rate
+10.6%
5352.2 → 5918/100K
Property offenses lead Signal Hill's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs CA
Property Crime
655
5918
1711
1985.9
Larceny-Theft
451
4074.8
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
136
1228.8
-
-
Burglary
68
614.4
-
-
Arson
7
63.2
-
-
Violent Crime
101
912.5
352
476.8
Aggravated Assault
74
668.6
-
-
Robbery
23
207.8
-
-
Rape
4
36.1
-
-
Murder
0
0
-
-
Signal Hill 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.
Signal Hill 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
Signal Hill Police Department
Reporting agency for Signal Hill NIBRS-participating
Signal Hill Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Signal Hill's 756 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 Signal Hill in population. Their populations run from 10,632 to 11,503, against 11,068 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Signal Hill at 912.5/100K violent and 5,918/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Signal Hill reported 101 violent crimes and 655 property crimes, for a total of 756 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Signal Hill?
From 2023 to 2024, Signal Hill's violent crime rate increased by 32.4%, and the property crime rate increased by 10.6%.
What is the most common crime in Signal Hill?
The most common crime type in Signal Hill is larceny-theft, accounting for 59.7% of all reported crimes (451 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Signal Hill 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 Signal Hill, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.