Crime in Santa Cruz, California
Major crime in Santa Cruz is 1.7 times the U.S. rate per resident: 2.0 times for persons crimes and 1.7 times for property crimes. Expected major crimes are down 13.3% 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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Drugs and alcohol stands out most, at 4.2 times the U.S. rate
Expected crimes per year in Santa Cruz 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 Santa Cruz
The middle half of Santa Cruz residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 78 and 201; the typical (median) resident's is 138. The citywide figure (172) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.
- 0–507.9%
- 50–10027.2%
- 100–20039.3%
- 200–40019.9%
- 400+5.7%
Share of residents by the index of their census block group, a neighborhood of roughly 600 to 3,000 people.
Highest on Friday and Saturday nights
Major-crime index by time of week, against the U.S. rate for the same hours.
Major crime fell 13.3% 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.
Santa Cruz against U.S. places with 50,000 to 100,000 residents
59 of the 540 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than Santa Cruz; the middle of the group is 92. The 9 nearest in population:
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.
Santa Cruz 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, Twin Lakes (3 mi), is 55% below Santa Cruz's rate.
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.
Questions about crime in Santa Cruz
What are the most common crimes in Santa Cruz?
By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are other larceny (about 634 a year), theft from vehicle (about 475 a year) and aggravated assault (about 267 a year). Compared with the U.S., drugs and alcohol stands out most: 4.2 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. Santa Cruz's figures add up its 31 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.
- Santa Cruz has no published incident records in our data, so its estimate relies on agency totals and neighborhood characteristics.
- 75.7% 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: 59,703. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2
Full method and validation·Data sources
CrimeMetric. "Crime in Santa Cruz, California." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/ca/santa-cruz
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Major-crime index, U.S. = 100
- Twin Lakes3 mi78
- Live Oak3 mi108
- Pleasure Point4 mi75
- Capitola4 mi150
- Soquel5 mi64
- Scotts Valley5 mi104
- Ben Lomond7 mi43
- Rio del Mar8 mi38