Crime in Brea, California
Major crime in Brea is 35% above the U.S. rate per resident: 51% lower for persons crimes and 1.5 times for property crimes. Expected major crimes are down 4.3% from a year earlier.
Modeled estimates per resident, not counts of incidents. How we calculated this
Index: crimes per resident compared with the U.S., where 100 is the U.S. rate and 200 is twice it.
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Shoplifting stands out most, at 3.0 times the U.S. rate
Expected crimes per year in Brea for each type, and the index against the U.S. rate per resident.
Citywide indexWhere the middle half of residents live
Property crimes
Social disorder
How crime varies across Brea
The middle half of Brea residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 40 and 93; the typical (median) resident's is 61. The citywide figure (135) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.
- 0–5045.2%
- 50–10037.8%
- 100–2002.3%
- 200–4007.2%
- 400+7.5%
Share of residents by the index of their census block group, a neighborhood of roughly 600 to 3,000 people.
Highest on weekend daytimes
Major-crime index by time of week, against the U.S. rate for the same hours.
Major crime fell 4.3% in a year; across California it fell 7.4%
Change in expected crimes, with California as a whole in gray. The past year uses the reporting agencies' year-to-date FBI data; 2031 is the model's projection.
Brea against U.S. places with 25,000 to 50,000 residents
167 of the 960 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than Brea; the middle of the group is 77. The 9 nearest in population:
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.
Brea has a higher major-crime index than 7 of its 8 nearest neighbors
The 8 nearest cities and towns we cover, by major-crime index. The closest, Placentia (3 mi), is 48% below Brea's rate.
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.
Questions about crime in Brea
What are the most common crimes in Brea?
By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are shoplifting (about 439 a year), other larceny (about 229 a year) and theft from vehicle (about 214 a year). Compared with the U.S., shoplifting stands out most: 3.0 times the U.S. rate per resident.
How we calculated this
Each police agency's crimes, as reported to the FBI, are spread across the census block groups it serves using population, jobs, points of interest and, where available, local incident records. Brea's figures add up its 26 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.
- Brea's published incident records inform the estimate for every neighborhood.
- 36.6% of residents live in block groups whose estimate has high confidence (80% interval within about 5x).
- Rates are per resident, so places where many people work or visit but few live, such as downtowns, airports and stadiums, can read high.
- Disorderly conduct and trespassing are modeled, because the FBI records them only through arrests.
- Residents: 46,284. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2
Full method and validation·Data sources
CrimeMetric. "Crime in Brea, California." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/ca/brea
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Major-crime index, U.S. = 100
- Placentia3 mi71
- La Habra4 mi91
- Rowland Heights4 mi157
- Fullerton4 mi114
- La Habra Heights5 mi53
- East Whittier6 mi59
- South San Jose Hills6 mi85
- Yorba Linda6 mi31