Is Torrance Safe? Official Crime Data and How to Check an Address

Torrance crime: the state's official counts

Every California police agency sends its crime counts to the Department of Justice, which publishes them on OpenJustice. The figures below come from the DOJ's Crimes and Clearances file covering 1985 to 2025, released in July 2026, which makes 2025 the newest year available. They are offenses reported to the Torrance Police Department, which covers the incorporated city only.

Torrance's 2025 violent crime, by offense

Of the 425 violent crimes in 2025, 255 were aggravated assaults, 141 were robberies, 28 were rapes and one was a homicide. Aggravated assault and robbery together made up 93% of the total. The department cleared 156 violent offenses that year, about 37%, which in the DOJ file usually means an arrest.

Torrance's 2025 property crime, by offense

Larceny-theft, which covers shoplifting, theft from vehicles, bicycle theft and similar, was 2,438 of the 3,594 property crimes, or 68%. Burglaries numbered 576 and motor vehicle thefts 580. Police cleared 288 property crimes, about 8%, a far lower share than for violent offenses, as is typical statewide.

Six-year change in Torrance compared with the county and state

From 2019 to 2025 Torrance's violent count rose 51.8% and its property count rose 26.0%. Over the same years Los Angeles County's agencies together reported 5.3% less violent crime and 1.2% less property crime, while statewide violent crime fell 1.6% and property crime fell 22.9%. Within Torrance's property total, vehicle theft nearly doubled (up 98%) and burglary rose 44%, while larceny-theft grew a more modest 13%. Between 2024 and 2025 alone, violent crime fell 0.2% and property crime 5.4%.

Torrance crime rates per 1,000 residents, with South Bay neighbors

Counts alone favor small cities, so we divided each agency's 2025 DOJ totals by its population in the Census American Community Survey 2020-2024 five-year estimates. These rates are our arithmetic, not figures published by the DOJ or the police.

Torrance sits in the middle of this group: above Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach on violent crime, well below Gardena and Hawthorne, and second only to Gardena on property crime. The residential hill city of Palos Verdes Estates is far lower on both counts.

One caution applies more strongly to Torrance than to most suburbs. The city's own About Torrance page puts the permanent population at about 143,363 but the daytime population at over 1.1 million, because of its employers, Del Amo Fashion Center and other regional shopping. Thefts from those visitors count in Torrance's totals, but the visitors are not in the population used for the rate, so per-resident property crime looks higher than a resident's own risk.

What Torrance's numbers can and cannot tell a buyer

The DOJ counts are reported offenses for the whole city in a calendar year. They are not convictions and they carry no location, so they cannot tell you whether a particular street in Walteria, Old Torrance or North Torrance has more or fewer incidents than another. No official dataset we found breaks Torrance's crime down by neighborhood, so this page does not rank areas.

The categories are also broad. A retail theft at a shopping center on Hawthorne Boulevard counts as larceny-theft just as a bicycle taken from a garage does, and a large share of Torrance's property count comes from commercial strips. A rise in vehicle theft, the category that grew fastest here, matters more to someone parking on the street than to someone with a locked garage. Some offenses are reported far more often than others: car theft almost always is, for insurance, while small thefts often are not.

For a decision about one home, narrower questions work better. What calls for service has the police department logged near the address? Where do residents park? How far is the home from a freeway on-ramp or a busy retail corridor? The tools in the next section help with those.

How to check crime near a Torrance address

Torrance Police Records Division: call-for-service information

The city's police report page says that people who are not a party to an incident can still ask for call-for-service information and other non-exempt records. Contact the Records Division at (310) 618-5529 or use the city's Public Records Request Portal. Full reports go to victims, their representatives, insurers and others with a loss, using the Request for Release of Police Records form, a $1.00 check and ID, sent to 3300 Civic Center Drive, Torrance, CA 90503.

Torrance Neighborhood Watch and Community Lead Officers

The Torrance Police Department organizes Neighborhood Watch by block, each with a Block Captain, and its first meeting covers local safety trends. Business Watch members get direct contact with Community Lead Officers and crime trend alerts. Before you buy, email CommunityAffairs@TorranceCA.gov to ask whether the block has an active watch group and what recent trends it has heard about.

Ask about an online Torrance crime map

The city's former crime map page no longer loads, so we could not confirm whether an online crime map is currently published or what it covers. Ask the department whether one exists, which offense types it plots and how many days behind it runs before you rely on it for a block-level view.

FBI Crime Data Explorer for the Torrance Police Department

The FBI Crime Data Explorer shows the Torrance Police Department's reports to the national system, with charts by offense and year. Its totals may not match the DOJ table above because the two systems count some offenses differently, so compare like with like.

California Megan's Law website

The Department of Justice's Megan's Law site maps registered sex offenders whose information is public. California purchase and lease contracts include a notice about this database, but the seller or landlord is not required to search it for you.

Check the jurisdiction on the parcel record

Not every address with a Torrance mailing address is in the City of Torrance. The Census Geocoder places 1010 W. 223rd Street (ZIP 90502) in unincorporated West Carson, where the Los Angeles County Sheriff, not Torrance police, responds. Look up the parcel on the LA County Assessor portal or the Census Geocoder so you ask the right agency for data.

Flood, coastal and earthquake checks in Torrance

Crime is only one risk. Torrance has about 1.5 miles of lifeguard-patrolled beach, according to the city, and a range of hills in the south near Walteria and the Palos Verdes border. Look up the FEMA flood zone for any low-lying lot, since it decides whether a lender requires flood insurance, and use Cal OES MyHazards to see earthquake, tsunami, flood and fire layers for an address. Standard homeowners policies exclude earthquake damage, so price a separate policy; our earthquake insurance guide covers the options and our seller disclosure guide explains the natural hazard report you will receive.

Before you buy or rent in Torrance: a checklist

• Confirm on the assessor record that the address is inside the City of Torrance, not West Carson, Harbor Gateway or another neighbor.
• Ask the Records Division for call-for-service information near the address for the last year.
• Ask Community Affairs whether the block has a Neighborhood Watch.
• Note how far the home is from Hawthorne Boulevard, Del Amo Fashion Center or other busy retail, where many thefts are logged.
• Check where cars are kept: vehicle theft was the fastest-growing category from 2019 to 2025.
• Ask an HOA or property manager about incidents, cameras and garage gates.
• Read the natural hazard disclosure and check the FEMA flood map.
• Compare prices and housing by area on our Torrance neighborhoods page and Torrance ZIP codes page.