Los Altos crime rate: ten years of official numbers
These are offenses the Los Altos Police Department reported to the California Department of Justice, from the DOJ's Crimes and Clearances with Arson file (1985-2025) on OpenJustice. Violent crime is the sum of homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Property crime is burglary, motor vehicle theft and larceny-theft. Arson is counted on its own.
| Year | Violent | Homicide | Rape | Robbery | Aggravated assault | Property | Burglary | Vehicle theft | Larceny-theft |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 13 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 343 | 133 | 17 | 193 |
| 2017 | 10 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 321 | 87 | 19 | 215 |
| 2018 | 13 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 284 | 80 | 16 | 188 |
| 2019 | 21 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 14 | 310 | 107 | 22 | 181 |
| 2020 | 23 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 9 | 323 | 81 | 21 | 221 |
| 2021 | 18 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 10 | 242 | 56 | 18 | 168 |
| 2022 | 20 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 9 | 360 | 100 | 22 | 238 |
| 2023 | 27 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 15 | 311 | 83 | 15 | 213 |
| 2024 | 23 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 15 | 358 | 75 | 16 | 267 |
| 2025 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 314 | 62 | 12 | 240 |
Los Altos violent crime: small numbers that swing year to year
Violent offenses ranged from 10 in 2017 to 27 in 2023, and 2025's 11 was the lowest since 2017, after 23 in 2024. The DOJ file records one homicide in Los Altos in the decade, in 2020. With counts this low, a handful of incidents moves the total by a third, so read the trend over several years rather than any single change. Aggravated assault made up 6 of the 11 violent offenses in 2025.
Los Altos property crime: theft up, burglary down
Property crime has averaged about 317 offenses a year since 2016, and 2025's 314 was down from 358 in 2024 and the 2022 high of 360. The mix has shifted. Larceny-theft, which includes shoplifting and theft from cars, was 240 in 2025, down from the ten-year high of 267 in 2024 but up 33% from 2019. Burglary fell from 107 to 62 over the same years, and residential burglary specifically fell from 73 to 43. Vehicle theft has stayed between 12 and 22 a year.
How many Los Altos crimes are solved
The same DOJ file counts clearances, mostly arrests. In 2025, Los Altos police cleared 6 of the 11 violent offenses and 14 of the 314 property offenses, or about 4%. Low clearance rates for theft are common across California, which is one reason prevention, such as locking cars and using door cameras, matters more than the arrest numbers.
Is Los Altos safe? How its rate compares with nearby cities
We do not label any city or street safe or unsafe. What the official data does show is that Los Altos reports fewer offenses per resident than the cities around it. In 2025, its police reported 0.36 violent and 10.2 property crimes per 1,000 residents, using the Census Bureau's ACS 2020-2024 population of 30,698. The table uses the same DOJ file and the same Census source for each city.
| Police agency (2025) | Violent crimes | Property crimes | Population (ACS 2020-2024) | Violent per 1,000 | Property per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Altos | 11 | 314 | 30,698 | 0.36 | 10.2 |
| Menlo Park | 60 | 503 | 32,727 | 1.83 | 15.4 |
| Sunnyvale | 293 | 2,895 | 154,236 | 1.90 | 18.8 |
| Mountain View | 184 | 2,113 | 83,732 | 2.20 | 25.2 |
| Palo Alto | 107 | 1,927 | 67,237 | 1.59 | 28.7 |
Two cautions apply. Mountain View, Palo Alto and Sunnyvale have large shopping and job centers that draw far more daytime visitors than residents, which raises their per-resident theft figures. Los Altos is mostly residential, with commercial zoning limited to downtown and the strips along Foothill Expressway and El Camino Real. And the DOJ figures count crimes where they are reported, not where the victims live. Our guide to crime data across California explains how to compare cities fairly.
What the Los Altos figures leave out
The table is a count of reported offenses inside the area that the Los Altos Police Department covers. Keep these limits in mind before using it to judge a particular home.
- Loyola and Los Altos Hills are separate. Homes in unincorporated Loyola carry Los Altos addresses but fall under the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office, so their incidents are not in the Los Altos figures. The Town of Los Altos Hills appears as its own line in the DOJ file, with 2 violent and 30 property offenses in 2025.
- Freeways. Incidents on I-280 and other state highways handled by the California Highway Patrol are reported under the CHP, not Los Altos police.
- Unreported crime. Many small thefts are never reported, so they never reach the DOJ.
- No neighborhood breakdown. The DOJ publishes one total per agency. No official dataset ranks Los Altos neighborhoods, which is why this page does not name the city's "safest" areas.
How to check crime near a Los Altos address
A city total says little about one block. These tools get closer.
Ask the Los Altos Police Department for local data
The police department is part of the City of Los Altos, whose civic center is at 1 North San Antonio Road. Ask the department whether it publishes an online crime map or recent incident log, and request calls for service near a specific address over the past year. Calls for service include noise, alarms and traffic complaints that never become crimes, which gives a fuller picture of a street than the DOJ totals.
California DOJ OpenJustice for the long-run trend
OpenJustice is the source of the figures above. Download the Crimes and Clearances file, filter the agency column to "Los Altos", and you can see every year back to 1985. The site also publishes arrest and use-of-force data by agency.
FBI Crime Data Explorer for national comparisons
The FBI's Crime Data Explorer carries the national (NIBRS) submissions for California agencies. Use it to compare Los Altos with suburbs in other states. Its counts can differ from the DOJ file because the two programs count some offenses in different ways.
Megan's Law search by Los Altos ZIP
The California DOJ's Megan's Law website searches registered sex offenders by address or ZIP code. Los Altos uses 94022 and 94024. Sellers meet their disclosure duty with a standard notice pointing you to this site, so run the search yourself.
Santa Clara County Sheriff for Loyola addresses
If the home is in unincorporated Loyola, or in Los Altos Hills, ask the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office for incident data, since Los Altos police records will not cover it. Check the parcel's jurisdiction on the county assessor's records first.
Fire, flood and earthquake checks in Los Altos
For most Los Altos buyers, natural hazards affect insurance more than crime does. Check each one for the specific address.
Wildfire zone near the Los Altos foothills
The city's western edge borders the wooded hills of Los Altos Hills and Loyola. Look up the address on CAL FIRE's Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps and get insurance quotes before you remove your contingencies. If standard insurers decline, the California FAIR Plan is the fallback; our wildfire zones guide explains what each zone means.
Adobe Creek and flood maps
Adobe Creek runs through Redwood Grove and Shoup Park near downtown. Homes near creeks should be checked on the FEMA Flood Map Service Center, and the seller's natural hazard disclosure report will state any mapped flood zone.
Earthquake exposure for Los Altos homes
Cal OES's MyHazards tool shows earthquake, flood and fire exposure for an address on one screen. The median Los Altos home was built in 1964 on Census figures, so ask the inspector about foundation bolting and cripple walls. See our earthquake insurance guide for coverage options.
Before you buy or rent in Los Altos: a short checklist
- Pull five or more years of Los Altos figures from OpenJustice and look at the trend.
- Confirm whether the parcel is in the city, Loyola or Los Altos Hills, since that decides which agency's data applies.
- Ask the police department or sheriff for calls for service near the address.
- Visit at night and on a weekend, and talk to neighbors.
- Search the Megan's Law site by address.
- Check the CAL FIRE zone, the FEMA flood map and MyHazards, and get an insurance quote early.
For homes, prices and schools by area, see the Los Altos neighborhoods guide and is Los Altos a good place to live.