Folsom crime rate: the official numbers by year
The figures below are offenses reported by the Folsom Police Department to the California Department of Justice, taken from the DOJ's Crimes and Clearances with Arson file (1985-2024) on OpenJustice. Violent crime covers homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Property crime covers burglary, motor vehicle theft and larceny-theft. Arson is counted separately.
| Year | Violent crimes | Aggravated assault | Robbery | Rape | Homicide | Property crimes | Burglary | Vehicle theft | Larceny-theft |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 82 | 41 | 29 | 12 | 0 | 1,484 | 278 | 79 | 1,127 |
| 2020 | 83 | 49 | 21 | 13 | 0 | 1,198 | 223 | 64 | 911 |
| 2021 | 82 | 45 | 19 | 16 | 2 | 1,165 | 226 | 71 | 868 |
| 2022 | 115 | 79 | 16 | 20 | 0 | 1,212 | 162 | 104 | 946 |
| 2023 | 204 | 121 | 40 | 40 | 3 | 1,328 | 120 | 59 | 1,149 |
| 2024 | 158 | 104 | 25 | 25 | 4 | 1,251 | 101 | 65 | 1,085 |
Folsom violent crime: up from 2019, down from the 2023 peak
Violent crimes reported in Folsom rose from 82 in 2019 to 204 in 2023, then fell to 158 in 2024. The 2024 total is 93% higher than 2019. Most of the increase is aggravated assault, which went from 41 to 104 over the same years. Over the same period, violent crime across every California agency in the DOJ file rose 8.6%, so Folsom's increase is much steeper than the state's, from a low base. Small numbers swing hard: a change of 20 or 30 incidents moves Folsom's percentage a long way.
Folsom property crime: down 16% since 2019
Property crimes fell from 1,484 in 2019 to 1,251 in 2024, a drop of 15.7%. Statewide, property crime fell 10.9% over the same years. The biggest change in Folsom is burglary, down from 278 to 101 (a 64% fall). Larceny-theft, which includes shoplifting and thefts from vehicles, makes up 87% of Folsom's property crime in 2024. A city with large retail centers such as the Palladio and the Folsom Premium Outlets will log more shoplifting reports than a purely residential suburb of the same size.
Crimes per 1,000 Folsom residents
Using the Census ACS 2020-2024 population of 83,916, Folsom recorded about 1.9 violent crimes and 14.9 property crimes per 1,000 residents in 2024. Treat these as rough: the ACS figure is a five-year average, and the city has kept growing with Folsom Ranch south of Highway 50 (Wikipedia cites a January 2026 estimate of 95,680). A larger true population would make the 2024 rates lower than shown here.
How many Folsom cases are cleared
A crime is "cleared" when police make an arrest or close it for reasons outside their control. In 2024 the Folsom Police Department cleared 82 of 158 violent crimes (52%) and 294 of 1,251 property crimes (24%), according to the same DOJ file. Property clearances were up from 155 in 2022.
What the Folsom crime numbers do and do not tell you
Read the table as a record of reported offenses inside the area the Folsom Police Department covers, nothing more. Four limits matter when you compare it with other places or use it to judge a street.
- Reporting, not victimization. Crimes that are never reported to police do not appear. Thefts under insurance deductibles often go unreported.
- Jurisdiction. The file is by agency. Incidents on US 50 handled by the California Highway Patrol, inside Folsom State Prison and California State Prison, Sacramento, or on Folsom Lake State Recreation Area land patrolled by State Parks rangers are reported by those agencies, not by Folsom police.
- Retail and visitors. Folsom draws shoppers and visitors from the wider region to Historic Sutter Street, the Palladio, the outlets and Folsom Lake. Per-resident rates do not account for that daytime population.
- No neighborhood breakdown. The DOJ publishes citywide totals only. There is no official dataset that ranks Folsom neighborhoods, which is why this page does not name "safest" areas.
For context across the region, the DOJ file lists every police department and sheriff's office, so you can compare Folsom with Roseville, Rancho Cordova or the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office using the same definitions. Our guide to crime data across California explains how to compare cities fairly.
How to check crime near a Folsom address
Citywide totals cannot tell you about one block. These official and public tools can.
Folsom Police Department crime map
The City of Folsom publishes a crime map on its police department pages at folsom.ca.us. The city describes it as a way to query and map selected crimes for a neighborhood or near an intersection, and warns that the data can contain errors. Use it to look at a radius around a home over several months, not a single week.
California DOJ OpenJustice
OpenJustice is where the yearly figures above come from. You can download the full Crimes and Clearances file, filter to "Folsom", and compare any year from 1985 onward. It also publishes arrests and use-of-force data by agency.
FBI Crime Data Explorer
The FBI's Crime Data Explorer publishes the Folsom Police Department's national (NIBRS) submissions. It is useful for comparing Folsom with suburbs outside California, but its counts can differ from the DOJ file because the two programs count some offenses differently.
Megan's Law registry
The California DOJ's Megan's Law website lets you search registered sex offenders by address or ZIP code (95630 covers most of Folsom). California sellers and agents meet their disclosure duty with a notice pointing buyers to this site, so you need to search it yourself.
Ask the Folsom Police Department directly
For a specific address, you can ask the police department's records unit about calls for service. Calls for service include noise complaints and alarms, so they paint a fuller picture of a street than crime reports alone.
Fire, flood and earthquake risk in Folsom
Crime is one risk to check. In Folsom, natural hazards affect insurance cost and availability more directly.
Folsom wildfire risk: check the CAL FIRE zone
Folsom sits in the Sierra Nevada foothills, with oak woodland and grassland along the American River, Folsom Lake and the open space in Folsom Ranch. Look up any address on CAL FIRE's Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps, then ask an insurance agent for quotes before you remove contingencies. If standard insurers decline, the California FAIR Plan is the fallback. Our wildfire zones guide explains what each zone requires.
Folsom Dam and flood risk
Folsom Lake is held back by Folsom Dam. In October 2017 the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers marked the completion of the Folsom Dam auxiliary spillway, a $900 million flood risk reduction project for the Sacramento region. For a specific home, check the FEMA Flood Map Service Center and ask the seller for the natural hazard disclosure report.
Earthquake and multi-hazard lookup
Cal OES's MyHazards tool shows earthquake, flood, fire and tsunami exposure for an address on one screen. Earthquake insurance is a separate policy in California; see our earthquake insurance guide.
A checklist before you buy or rent in Folsom
- Pull the last five years of Folsom figures from OpenJustice and look at the trend, not one year.
- Map reported incidents within a few blocks of the address on the city's crime map, over at least six months.
- Visit the street at night and on a weekend, and talk to neighbors.
- Search the Megan's Law site by address.
- Check the CAL FIRE hazard zone and FEMA flood map, and get an insurance quote early.
- Read the HOA's rules on gates, lighting and patrols if the home is in an association, and ask what the dues cover.
For prices, schools and commute data, see is Folsom a good place to live and the Folsom neighborhoods guide.