Palo Alto crime: the official numbers
Every California police department reports crimes to the state Department of Justice (DOJ), which publishes them through OpenJustice. The table shows offenses reported by the Palo Alto Police Department. Violent crime is homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault; property crime is burglary, motor vehicle theft and larceny-theft.
| Year | Violent crimes | Property crimes | Burglary | Vehicle theft | Larceny-theft |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 68 | 1,704 | 213 | 86 | 1,405 |
| 2017 | 90 | 1,783 | 214 | 91 | 1,478 |
| 2019 | 86 | 1,983 | 179 | 82 | 1,722 |
| 2020 | 81 | 1,931 | 242 | 119 | 1,570 |
| 2021 | 68 | 1,598 | 176 | 93 | 1,329 |
| 2022 | 134 | 1,945 | 147 | 110 | 1,688 |
| 2023 | 135 | 1,820 | 177 | 116 | 1,527 |
| 2024 | 138 | 1,974 | 147 | 120 | 1,707 |
| 2025 | 107 | 1,927 | 184 | 72 | 1,671 |
Palo Alto crime rates compared with the county and state
We divided the 2025 DOJ counts by Census population (American Community Survey 2020 to 2024). Palo Alto had about 1.59 violent crimes per 1,000 residents, against 3.64 for all agencies in Santa Clara County and 4.34 statewide. Its property crime rate was about 28.7 per 1,000, against 22.5 for the county and 18.0 statewide. Nearby, Mountain View's rates were about 2.20 and 25.2, and Sunnyvale's about 1.90 and 18.8.
What the 2022 jump in violent crime means
Palo Alto's violent crime count roughly doubled between 2021 and 2022, from 68 to 134, and stayed near that level through 2024 before falling to 107 in 2025. The police department notes that 2022 was its first year reporting under the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), which expanded the crime categories it records and makes comparisons with earlier years difficult. Aggravated assaults, for example, were 24 in 2021 and 67 in 2022 in the DOJ data. Some of the change is real and some reflects how incidents are counted, and the published data do not separate the two.
The police department's own 2025 figures
The Palo Alto Police Department posts its own annual tables. For 2025 it reports 0 murders, 22 robberies (down from 35 in 2024), 74 aggravated assaults, 185 burglaries (up from 147), 1,685 larcenies and 73 motor vehicle thefts (down from 123). Calls for service rose to 44,129 from 40,459. The department's counts differ slightly from the DOJ's 2025 file (21 robberies, 184 burglaries, 1,671 larcenies, 72 vehicle thefts) because of timing and category rules, so compare like with like.
What the Palo Alto crime numbers do and do not tell you
These are counts of crimes reported to police, not the number of victims or the total amount of crime. Theft is the bulk of it: larceny made up 1,671 of the 1,927 property crimes in 2025. Counts also reflect where people go, not just where they live. Palo Alto draws large numbers of shoppers and workers to downtown, California Avenue, Stanford Shopping Center and Stanford Research Park, and thefts there are counted against a residential population of about 67,000. That is one reason a city with a low violent crime rate can have a property crime rate above the county's.
A per-resident rate also hides the street-level picture. Neither the DOJ nor the FBI publishes Palo Alto figures by neighborhood, and we do not rank areas. For a specific home, look at incidents near the address over several months using the tools below, and visit at different times of day.
For a statewide comparison built on the same DOJ data, see our guide to crime rates across California cities.
How to check crime near a Palo Alto address
Palo Alto police calls for service map
The police department runs a beta interactive map showing calls officers responded to in the past 24 hours. Each circle is one call; the exact location is withheld and falls somewhere inside the circle. A call is not necessarily a crime, and traffic stops and some call types are left out, so use it to see patterns rather than to count crimes.
Palo Alto police report log
The department's Records Unit posts a daily Police Report Log as a PDF each business day, listing case number, date, time, offense and location for reports taken. The page keeps the last 30 business days. Reading several weeks of logs for the streets around a home is the most detailed public view of reported crime by address.
Palo Alto police crime statistics page and custom requests
The department's Crime Statistics page carries annual tables back to 2016 and monthly hate crime counts. It also offers a statistics request form for location-based crime figures, for a fee listed in the city budget fee schedule, through the Crime Analysis Unit at (650) 329-2536.
California DOJ OpenJustice and the FBI Crime Data Explorer
OpenJustice has Palo Alto's annual counts back to 1985 and clearance rates, the share of crimes solved. The FBI Crime Data Explorer shows the same agency's NIBRS data with more offense detail and lets you compare it with other agencies.
Megan's Law registry and Nixle alerts
The California DOJ's Megan's Law website lets you search registered sex offenders by address. The police department sends public safety alerts through Nixle, linked from its website, and the city's emergency alert sign-up page covers wider emergencies.
Fire, flood and earthquake are risks too
For most Palo Alto homeowners, a natural hazard is more likely to cost money than a crime, and hazard zones are mapped by official agencies down to the parcel. Check each address you are considering.
Flood zones along Palo Alto's creeks
San Francisquito Creek forms the boundary between Santa Clara and San Mateo counties and runs along the north edge of Palo Alto to the bay. Matadero, Adobe and Barron creeks cross the south of the city, and the Barron Park Association's history records concerns over periodic flooding of Barron Creek. Look the address up on the FEMA Flood Map Service Center; if the home is in a Special Flood Hazard Area, ask your lender whether flood insurance will be required and get a quote early.
Fire hazard severity zones in the Palo Alto foothills
Most of Palo Alto is flat and urban, but the city also includes foothill land west of Foothill Expressway, including Foothills Nature Preserve. CAL FIRE's Office of the State Fire Marshal maps Fire Hazard Severity Zones; homes in a mapped zone face defensible-space rules and may find insurance harder to get. See our California wildfire zones guide.
Earthquake faults and liquefaction near Palo Alto
Cal OES's MyHazards tool shows earthquake fault zones, liquefaction zones and flood and fire layers for an address in one search, and the seller's Natural Hazard Disclosure reports the same official zones. Ask your insurer whether earthquake damage is covered, and see our California earthquake insurance guide.
A checklist before you buy or rent in Palo Alto
- Read four to six weeks of the Palo Alto police report log for the streets around the home.
- Look at the calls-for-service map on several different days.
- Visit at different times of day and on a weekend.
- Search the Megan's Law site for the address.
- Check FEMA flood, CAL FIRE hazard and MyHazards earthquake layers, and compare them with the Natural Hazard Disclosure.
- Ask the seller or landlord about any break-ins, package theft or car break-ins, and about alarms or cameras that convey.
- Get insurance quotes before you remove contingencies.
For the rest of what living here is like, see is Palo Alto a good place to live.