Silicon Valley crime by year: the California DOJ figures
Every police department and sheriff's office in California reports crimes to the state Department of Justice, which publishes them as the Crimes and Clearances dataset on OpenJustice. We added up every Santa Clara County agency, including the Sheriff's Office, campus police, VTA transit police and the Highway Patrol, and divided by the Census population of the county.
| Year | Violent crimes, Santa Clara County | Property crimes, Santa Clara County | Homicides |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 4,801 | 45,140 | 44 |
| 2017 | 5,995 | 44,954 | 46 |
| 2018 | 6,155 | 45,406 | 32 |
| 2019 | 6,361 | 47,606 | 45 |
| 2020 | 6,141 | 43,690 | 53 |
| 2021 | 6,800 | 41,997 | 57 |
| 2022 | 7,427 | 47,914 | 41 |
| 2023 | 7,233 | 39,519 | 41 |
| 2024 | 8,139 | 44,677 | 35 |
Violent crime in Silicon Valley: up, with fewer homicides
Reported violent crime (homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) rose from 6,361 in 2019 to 8,139 in 2024, the highest count in the decade shown. That is about 4.3 per 1,000 residents, against 4.8 for California as a whole (188,146 offenses statewide). Homicides fell to 35, the lowest since 2018. San Jose accounts for 5,804 of the county's violent crimes, 71% of the total, with about 52% of the population.
Property crime in Silicon Valley: above the state rate
Property crime (burglary, motor vehicle theft and larceny-theft) was 44,677 in 2024, about 23.5 per 1,000 residents, above California's 20.8. It was lower than in 2019 (47,606) and 2022 (47,914). Car theft made up 8,709 of the 2024 total and larceny-theft most of the rest. Retail centers, office parks and transit hubs draw theft reports, which lifts the rates of cities with large commercial areas relative to their resident populations.
Crime rates by Silicon Valley city, 2024
The table divides each police agency's 2024 reported crimes by the city's population in the Census Bureau's American Community Survey for 2020 to 2024. These are our calculations from official counts, not rankings. Cupertino, Saratoga and Los Altos Hills are served by the Sheriff's Office West Valley Division, and their figures appear under their own names in the DOJ file. Unincorporated areas are covered by the Sheriff's Office, which reported 274 violent and 1,435 property crimes in 2024.
| City | Population (ACS 2020-2024) | Violent crimes 2024 | Per 1,000 | Property crimes 2024 | Per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Jose | 990,138 | 5,804 | 5.9 | 24,762 | 25.0 |
| Sunnyvale | 154,236 | 369 | 2.4 | 2,881 | 18.7 |
| Santa Clara | 130,256 | 240 | 1.8 | 3,300 | 25.3 |
| Mountain View | 83,732 | 248 | 3.0 | 2,259 | 27.0 |
| Milpitas | 78,578 | 239 | 3.0 | 2,436 | 31.0 |
| Palo Alto | 67,237 | 138 | 2.1 | 1,974 | 29.4 |
| Gilroy | 59,004 | 267 | 4.5 | 1,253 | 21.2 |
| Cupertino | 58,566 | 63 | 1.1 | 883 | 15.1 |
| Morgan Hill | 45,425 | 86 | 1.9 | 665 | 14.6 |
| Campbell | 42,781 | 201 | 4.7 | 1,210 | 28.3 |
| Los Gatos | 32,786 | 47 | 1.4 | 456 | 13.9 |
| Los Altos | 30,698 | 23 | 0.7 | 358 | 11.7 |
| Saratoga | 30,319 | 26 | 0.9 | 175 | 5.8 |
| Los Altos Hills | 8,377 | 4 | 0.5 | 29 | 3.5 |
Small cities swing a lot from year to year: Los Gatos reported 14 violent crimes in 2019 and 47 in 2024, and a handful of incidents can double a rate. Compare several years before drawing a conclusion, and remember that a city rate says little about one street.
How Silicon Valley crime changed since 2019, and how much is solved
The DOJ data also records clearances: crimes closed by an arrest or by "exceptional means" such as a suspect's death. Across Santa Clara County in 2024, 41% of violent crimes and 10% of property crimes were cleared. The table compares each city's 2024 count with 2019, before the pandemic, and gives its 2024 clearance rates.
| City | Violent crimes, 2024 vs 2019 | Property crimes, 2024 vs 2019 | Violent cleared, 2024 | Property cleared, 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Jose | +27% | -2% | 34% | 8% |
| Sunnyvale | +42% | -15% | 56% | 14% |
| Santa Clara | +12% | -30% | 58% | 10% |
| Mountain View | +50% | -8% | 58% | 7% |
| Milpitas | +134% | +11% | 61% | 19% |
| Palo Alto | +60% | 0% | 54% | 15% |
| Gilroy | +6% | -15% | 52% | 17% |
| Cupertino | +15% | -13% | 63% | 24% |
| Morgan Hill | +65% | -5% | 58% | 18% |
| Campbell | +126% | -11% | 41% | 16% |
| Los Gatos | +236% | +9% | 51% | 10% |
| Los Altos | +10% | +15% | 39% | 6% |
| Saratoga | +62% | -27% | 54% | 9% |
| Los Altos Hills | +33% | -57% | 75% | 3% |
Violent crime rose in every listed city between 2019 and 2024, while property crime fell in most, with the largest drops in Santa Clara (-30%) and Saratoga (-27%). Clearance counts include crimes reported in earlier years, so a rate can move for reasons unrelated to that year's crimes.
What the Silicon Valley figures leave out
DOJ counts are crimes reported to police. Many thefts and some assaults are never reported, and reporting habits differ between cities. The figures are by agency, not by neighborhood, so a city total mixes its downtown, its shopping centers and its quiet residential streets. Population-based rates also overstate crime in places that draw many visitors or workers, such as the office districts of Santa Clara and Mountain View or the stadium and malls. We do not label any city or neighborhood safe or unsafe; the method and the numbers are here so you can make your own call.
How to check crime near a Silicon Valley address
California DOJ OpenJustice by agency
Download the Crimes and Clearances file from OpenJustice and filter by the police agency for the address. It goes back to 1985, so you can see a long trend for any city in this table.
San Jose Open Data: police calls for service
The San Jose Police Department publishes every call for service as open data, one record per incident, with yearly files from 2016 and a 2026 file updated daily. Calls are not confirmed crimes, but they show what police respond to near a block.
City police data pages in Palo Alto and Cupertino
Palo Alto Police lists crime statistics, a calls-for-service interactive map and a police report log on its public information portal. Cupertino, policed by the Sheriff's Office, runs a crime dashboard covering more than 10 years of data, filterable by crime type and year. For other cities, look on the police department's own website.
FBI Crime Data Explorer for national comparisons
The FBI's Crime Data Explorer shows agency figures reported to the national system, useful when you compare a Silicon Valley city with one in another state.
Megan's Law search for a Silicon Valley address
The state DOJ's Megan's Law site lets you search registered sex offenders. Read its terms before you search.
Your own visits at different hours
Walk or drive the street on a weeknight and a weekend, and talk to neighbors. Ask the seller and the HOA, where there is one, about break-ins, package theft and car break-ins in the complex.
Earthquake, flood and fire risk in Silicon Valley
For most owners, natural hazards cost more than crime. The U.S. Geological Survey puts the chance of at least one magnitude 6.7 or larger earthquake in the San Francisco Bay region between 2014 and 2043 at 72%, with the Hayward, Rodgers Creek, Calaveras and San Andreas faults the most likely sources. See our California earthquake insurance guide.
Valley Water, the county's flood agency, warns that a Santa Clara County home may be in a high-risk flood area even if it is not next to a creek. Check the FEMA Flood Map Service Center or call Valley Water's map help line, 408-630-2650. Hillside homes in the Santa Cruz Mountains and the eastern foothills need a fire hazard severity zone check; see our wildfire zones guide and Cal OES MyHazards.
Before you buy or rent in Silicon Valley: a checklist
- Find the police agency for the address: city police, the Sheriff for unincorporated land, or the Sheriff's West Valley Division in Cupertino, Saratoga and Los Altos Hills.
- Pull that agency's DOJ figures for at least five years.
- Look at the city's calls-for-service map or dashboard for the blocks around the home.
- Visit at night and on a weekend.
- Check the FEMA flood map, the fire hazard zone and MyHazards for the address.
- Ask your insurer for quotes before you remove the contingency; see our homeowners insurance guide.
For prices city by city, see our Silicon Valley neighborhoods guide, and for San Jose's own figures see San Jose crime data.