Crime in La Mesa, California
Major crime in La Mesa is 22% above the U.S. rate per resident: 39% higher for persons crimes and 18% higher for property crimes. Expected major crimes are up 15.9% 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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Drugs and alcohol stands out most, at 2.6 times the U.S. rate
Expected crimes per year in La Mesa 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 La Mesa
The middle half of La Mesa residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 55 and 106; the typical (median) resident's is 74. The citywide figure (122) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.
- 0–5013.5%
- 50–10052.6%
- 100–20025.9%
- 200–4004.5%
- 400+3.5%
Share of residents by the index of their census block group, a neighborhood of roughly 600 to 3,000 people.
Highest on weeknights
Major-crime index by time of week, against the U.S. rate for the same hours.
Major crime rose 15.9% 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.
La Mesa against U.S. places with 50,000 to 100,000 residents
164 of the 540 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than La Mesa; the middle of the group is 92. The 9 nearest in population:
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.
La Mesa has a higher major-crime index than all of its 8 nearest neighbors
The 8 nearest cities and towns we cover, by major-crime index. The closest, Lemon Grove (3 mi), is 32% below La Mesa's rate.
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.
Questions about crime in La Mesa
What are the most common crimes in La Mesa?
By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are shoplifting (about 323 a year), theft from vehicle (about 257 a year) and aggravated assault (about 210 a year). Compared with the U.S., drugs and alcohol stands out most: 2.6 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. La Mesa's figures add up its 42 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.
- La Mesa's published incident records inform the estimate for every neighborhood.
- 45.2% 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: 59,271. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2
Full method and validation·Data sources
CrimeMetric. "Crime in La Mesa, California." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/ca/la-mesa
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Major-crime index, U.S. = 100
- Lemon Grove3 mi83
- Casa de Oro-Mount Helix3 mi41
- Spring Valley3 mi32
- La Presa4 mi40
- El Cajon4 mi120
- Bostonia5 mi55
- Rancho San Diego6 mi29
- Santee6 mi54