Who polices Lakewood, and why that matters for the data
Lakewood has no city police department. Law enforcement comes from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) through its Lakewood Station at 5130 Clark Avenue, phone (562) 623-3500. The same station also serves Artesia, Bellflower, Hawaiian Gardens, Paramount and unincorporated pockets of Cerritos and Long Beach. That has two effects on the numbers you will find online.
- Station totals are not Lakewood totals. In 2025 the Lakewood Station handled 5,951 Part I crimes across its whole area, of which 1,867 were in Lakewood. Always pick the row for the city, not the station.
- Some sites file Lakewood under the sheriff. National databases may list contract cities separately or fold them into the county sheriff. Check which jurisdiction a figure covers before you compare it with another city.
The California DOJ file used below lists Lakewood as its own reporting area within Los Angeles County, so its counts cover the city only.
Lakewood crime by year: the DOJ figures
These are the counts in the DOJ's Crimes and Clearances file, which runs through 2025. Violent crime is homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Property crime is burglary, motor vehicle theft and larceny-theft; arson is counted separately.
| Year | Violent crimes | Property crimes |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 202 | 1,737 |
| 2015 | 222 | 2,198 |
| 2016 | 223 | 2,521 |
| 2017 | 318 | 2,422 |
| 2018 | 270 | 1,848 |
| 2019 | 222 | 1,846 |
| 2020 | 236 | 1,707 |
| 2021 | 251 | 1,600 |
| 2022 | 369 | 1,846 |
| 2023 | 274 | 1,727 |
| 2024 | 348 | 1,986 |
| 2025 | 276 | 1,580 |
The 2025 violent total was 1 homicide, 21 rapes, 91 robberies and 163 aggravated assaults. Property crime was 175 burglaries, 304 vehicle thefts and 1,101 larceny-thefts. Compared with 2019, violent crime was up 24.3% and property crime down 14.4%. Statewide over the same six years, violent crime fell 1.6% and property crime fell 22.9%. Within Lakewood's property figures, vehicle thefts rose from 189 in 2019 to a peak of 472 in 2024 before falling to 304 in 2025, while burglaries fell from 303 to 175. The highest property count in this table was 2,521 in 2016; the highest violent count was 369 in 2022.
What the Sheriff's Department reported for 2025
The Sheriff's official two-year comparison by patrol station (2024 vs. 2025, generated January 22, 2026) gives more detail on last year. Its Lakewood rows closely match the DOJ: 347 violent crimes in 2024 against 348, the same 276 in 2025, and property crimes of 1,989 and 1,591 including arson, against 1,986 and 1,580 without it.
| Lakewood, LASD figures | 2024 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes | 347 | 276 | -20.5% |
| Robbery | 140 | 91 | -35.0% |
| Aggravated assault | 193 | 163 | -15.5% |
| Burglary | 227 | 175 | -22.9% |
| Larceny-theft | 1,287 | 1,101 | -14.5% |
| Vehicle theft | 472 | 304 | -35.6% |
| Property crimes (with arson) | 1,989 | 1,591 | -20.0% |
| All Part I crimes | 2,336 | 1,867 | -20.1% |
Small categories swing a lot: rapes went from 11 to 21 and arsons from 3 to 11, while homicides fell from 3 to 1. The Sheriff notes that homicide, rape and aggravated assault are counted by victim and other crimes by incident, following FBI rules.
Lakewood crime rates compared with nearby cities
To compare places of different sizes, divide crimes by population. We used the DOJ's 2025 counts and the Census Bureau's American Community Survey 2020-2024 population for each city: 79,850 for Lakewood. The table is our calculation from those two official sources, rounded to one decimal.
| City (2025) | Violent per 1,000 | Property per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Lakewood | 3.5 | 19.8 |
| Bellflower | 5.6 | 18.6 |
| Paramount | 6.2 | 23.2 |
| Cerritos | 2.4 | 36.6 |
| Norwalk | 3.2 | 15.4 |
| Long Beach | 6.1 | 24.7 |
| California | 4.3 | 18.0 |
Lakewood's violent rate sits a little below the state's and its property rate somewhat above it. Property rates are shaped by where theft happens, not only where people live: cities with large shopping centers, auto dealers or freeway interchanges record thefts from shoppers and businesses, which may help explain why Cerritos, with fewer residents, has the highest property rate in this group. Rates for small cities also move more from year to year, because a few dozen incidents change the result.
What crime statistics can and cannot tell you about a Lakewood street
The counts include only crimes reported to deputies, and many thefts, especially from cars, never are. A jump in one year can reflect reporting or record systems as much as crime. Citywide totals also say nothing about a particular block; the Sheriff publishes Lakewood figures by city, not by neighborhood, and no official ranking of Lakewood neighborhoods exists. Be careful with private sites that assign letter grades to areas.
Clearance rates show how often a crime is closed by an arrest or other means. In 2025 the DOJ file shows 196 of Lakewood's 276 violent crimes cleared, about 71%, and 205 of 1,580 property crimes, about 13%. Statewide, about 46% of violent and 11% of property crimes were cleared. With nearly nine in ten property crimes unsolved, a locked garage, lighting, a camera and good insurance do more for a household than any area label.
How to check crime near a Lakewood address
CrimeMapping, linked by the Sheriff's Department
LASD points the public to CrimeMapping.com for incident maps. Search the address, set a radius of a few blocks and look back several months. The Sheriff says the mapped data is preliminary, incomplete and subject to change, so use it to spot patterns, not to count.
LASD Crime Stats Dashboard and monthly reports
The department's dashboard shows ten years plus the current year of Part I crimes for the areas it serves, and its official monthly statistics by station are posted on the 23rd of each month for the month before. Filter to Lakewood rather than the whole station.
California DOJ OpenJustice
OpenJustice publishes crimes, clearances and arrests for every agency and contract city in the state on the same definitions. It is the source to use when comparing Lakewood with Bellflower, Cerritos, Long Beach or any other city.
FBI Crime Data Explorer
The FBI's site has national data and trend charts. Search for Lakewood and for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, and check which one a figure belongs to. Its years and categories differ slightly from the DOJ file, so keep the two apart in any comparison.
Nixle alerts from Lakewood Station
The station posts community alerts through Nixle; you can sign up for messages by email or text. Reading recent alerts is a quick way to see the kinds of incidents deputies are warning residents about.
California Megan's Law website
The DOJ's Megan's Law site maps the registered sex offenders whose addresses the law allows it to publish. Search the address and the surrounding blocks.
Earthquake, flood and fire checks for a Lakewood home
Earthquake risk for 1950s Lakewood houses
The Census puts the median year built for Lakewood homes at 1957, so most houses predate modern seismic codes. Ask the inspector about foundation bolting and cripple-wall bracing, and read our California earthquake insurance guide before deciding on a policy.
Flood zones in Lakewood
Look up the parcel on the FEMA Flood Map Service Center. Check the zone before you write an offer, ask your lender whether it requires flood cover, and get an insurance quote either way.
Fire hazard zone and the hazard disclosure
Cal OES's MyHazards tool shows earthquake, flood, tsunami and fire hazards for an address in one place. The natural hazard disclosure in your purchase packet states whether the property is in a mapped fire hazard severity zone; our California wildfire zones guide explains what each zone means for insurance.
A checklist before you buy or rent in Lakewood
- Map incidents within a few blocks on CrimeMapping for at least 12 months, and compare with the streets around it.
- Pull the Lakewood row, not the station total, from the Sheriff's latest comparison report.
- Visit at different times: a weekday evening, a Saturday afternoon, a school-day morning.
- Search the Megan's Law site and read the seller's disclosures and natural hazard disclosure.
- Check the FEMA flood map and MyHazards, and get insurance quotes before removing contingencies.
- Ask neighbors and any local Neighborhood Watch group what they have seen.
For prices by area, see the Lakewood neighborhoods guide and the Lakewood ZIP codes page. To compare cities across the state on the same data, see our California crime data guide.