Brea is a city of 47,900 in Orange County, about 20 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles · Updated November 2026
Is Brea, CA safe?
Yes, crime in Brea is low, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of A. Because most US neighborhoods are safe as well, Brea sits near the middle: safer than the neighborhoods where 53% of Americans live. Violent crime grades better than property crime here, A against B+. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Brea run from A+ to B, so check the map below.
A
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 849 of 1,000About as safe as the typical US neighborhoodi What this means
53% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Brea as a whole, and 47% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Brea scores 849.
Crime is concentrated in a small share of places, so most neighborhoods score high on the 0 to 1,000 scale. That is why a score in the 800s can still mean more crime than most US neighborhoods.
How to read the map: each area's color compares its crime with the people, homes and cars there, on one national scale, from green for the least crime to red for the most. Each area gets its own color, so a busy shopping center can show red while the homes beside it stay green. The interactive maps load faster on a strong connection. Compare high speed internet in Brea, CA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Brea, and anyone thinking about buying or renting a home there.
Business and enterprise customers: this free map shows neighborhood areas. CrimeGrade™ business reports map crime at about 66-meter detail and estimate it for one address and type of business. See business reports
What stands out in Brea
Car thefts happen in parking lots and garages far more often than nationally. In Brea, 61% of reported car thefts happen in parking lots and garages, against 23% nationally.
Aggravated assault runs low. Brea has 1.3 aggravated assaults a year per 1,000 residents, about half the US rate of 2.6.
The safest and least safe parts of Brea
Every part of Brea where people live grades A or B on the national scale. Grades across Brea run from A+ to B; 52% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
100%
A or B 100%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Brea, the southeast side has the least crime and the southwest side the most.
Is crime going up in Brea?
Since 2019, reported violent crime in Brea is up 33% and property crime is down 10%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 1.6 to 2.2 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 33 to 29 (US: 18). Neither changed much from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
BreaUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police department that serves Brea. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Brea
Violent, US
Property, Brea
Property, US
2016
+30%
+4%
+0%
+15%
2017
+60%
+4%
+1%
+12%
2018
+16%
+0%
-10%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-18%
+4%
-23%
-8%
2021
+8%
+6%
-22%
-10%
2022
+17%
+5%
+0%
-6%
2023
+37%
+2%
-4%
-7%
2024
+33%
-4%
-10%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Brea
CrimeGrade™ estimates Brea has about 39 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, about the same as the US as a whole and close to California.
Overall crime
Violent crime
Property crime
Reported crimes a year, per 1,000 residents. These figures include simple assaults and vandalism, which the FBI's violent and property crime rates leave out.
The largest share of crime reported in Brea is theft, about 64% of the total. It also makes up the largest share of what crime costs here.
Each CrimeGrade™ compares a crime with what it affects: people for assaults and robbery, homes for burglary, parked cars for vehicle theft. Rates count crimes per 1,000 residents.
Select a crime's name to see its map above. CrimeGrade™ business reports map each crime at about 66-meter detail.
Where and when crime happens in Brea
Brea has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Brea, 24% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often in parking lots and garages: 66% of them, against 31% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Stores and businesses (59%)
Night (midnight to 6 am)
Car theft
Parking lots and garages (61%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Parking lots and garages (66%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Parking lots and garages (39%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (72%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Aggravated assault
Homes (45%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Shares of the crimes reported to police, 2022 to 2024. Reports with no time recorded are left out of the times.
How Brea compares with nearby cities
Brea has less crime than 8 of its 10 nearest cities; only Yorba Linda and La Habra Heights have less.
Two things set Brea apart: it has 22.5 stores and restaurants for every 1,000 residents, against 10.5 nationally, and 100 jobs for every 100 residents, against 45 for the US as a whole. Places like that tend to report more theft, and it runs high here.
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft.22.5 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Higher than for 98% of US city residents
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more theft and robbery.100 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Higher than for 96% of US city residents
Walk GradeBestNeighborhood's grade for getting through daily life on foot, traced along real walking routes to shops, schools and parks. Walkable places tend to report more theft and assault. 75% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.D+ (23 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 68% of US city residents
Show all 6
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary, vandalism and arson.2.9% of homesUS: 7.1%Lower than for 87% of US city residents
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.40% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 76% of US city residents
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.1.2 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Lower than for 70% of US city residents
BestNeighborhood, a sister site of CrimeGrade™, ranks the neighborhoods of Brea on shops, parks, home prices, getting around and more.
These traits tend to go with more or less crime; none of them causes it on its own. Sources: Census job counts and housing figures, OpenStreetMap and Overture business listings, CrimeGrade™ parking estimates, NASA night-light imagery, US Forest Service tree cover, EPA transit data and BestNeighborhood's Walk Grade.
What crime costs Brea
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Brea about $945 a year per household, 22% less than the US figure of $1,205.
Cost of crime per resident, per year
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, which comes almost entirely from violent crime, the full cost comes to about $38 million a year, or $784 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$1.5 million
$32
Rape
$510,000
$11
Robbery
$1.5 million
$32
Assault
$3.0 million
$64
Burglary
$1.2 million
$25
Theft
$6.1 million
$127
Vehicle theft
$1.2 million
$26
Arson
$100,000
$2
Vandalism
$1.1 million
$24
Total
$16 million
$343
How CrimeGrade™ works
A CrimeGrade™ shows how much crime an area has compared with the rest of the country, from A+ for the least crime to F for the most. Every neighborhood in the US is graded on the same scale, so a B in Brea means the same as a B anywhere else.
CrimeGrade™ starts from the crimes people report to police and measures each kind of crime against what it affects: people for assaults, homes for burglaries, parked cars for car thefts.
The rates on this page count crimes for every 1,000 people who live here, the way police departments report them.
Comparisons with US neighborhoods use the Census Bureau's block groups, small areas of about 1,400 residents, and count the people who live in each. The figures count crimes reported to police; many crimes, shoplifting above all, never are. Behind the grades, CrimeGrade™ tested 21,607 factors from 125 data families. For business owners, paid CrimeGrade™ location reports estimate crime at a single address for each type of business.
Where the numbers come from
Crime reports that police departments file with the FBI
State crime records and city crime data, where they are published
Published research on what crime costs victims and communities
These are estimates of reported crime for whole areas, not a record of what happened on any one street. CrimeGrade™ updates them once a year and provides them free and without guarantee. Check local sources before you rely on them for a decision.
Schools in Brea, CA average a SchoolGrade of A+: 56% of students test proficient, against 49% projected for schools like them. Overall, they exceed expectations. See schools in Brea on SchoolGrade
