East Central is a neighborhood of 20,600 residents in Pasadena, about 2 miles northeast of downtown · Updated November 2026
Is East Central in Pasadena safe?
Crime in East Central is moderate, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of B+. Most US neighborhoods have little crime: 62% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime than East Central. Violent crime grades better than property crime here, A against B-. Pasadena as a whole grades B+. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within East Central run from A to C+, so check the map below.
B+
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 763 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
38% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than East Central as a whole, and 62% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. East Central scores 763.
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 East Central, Pasadena, CA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in East Central in Pasadena, 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 East Central
Burglary stands out among B-graded neighborhoods. For the typical resident of a B-graded US neighborhood, the figure is 2.5 burglaries a year per 1,000 residents; East Central has 5.6.
Robbery is the exception. East Central grades A for violent crime, but robbery grades B+, worse than in the neighborhoods where 75% of Americans live.
How East Central compares within Pasadena
Most of East Central grades well: 94% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and the rest in areas graded C. Grades across East Central run from A to C+; 15% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
94%
A or B 94%C 6%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
East Central has less crime than 4 of the 10 neighborhoods in Pasadena. It covers much of the East Central and North East areas.
Is crime going up in Pasadena?
Since 2019, reported property crime in Pasadena as a whole is up 28%, while violent crime has held about steady. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 4.3 to 4.6 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 20 to 26 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, violent crime fell 11%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
PasadenaUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments that serve Pasadena. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Pasadena
Violent, US
Property, Pasadena
Property, US
2016
-22%
+4%
+20%
+15%
2017
-7%
+4%
+2%
+12%
2018
-11%
+0%
+2%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-31%
+4%
+7%
-8%
2021
-17%
+6%
+14%
-10%
2022
-13%
+5%
+12%
-6%
2023
+20%
+2%
+26%
-7%
2024
+7%
-4%
+28%
-15%
Crime rates and types in East Central
CrimeGrade™ estimates East Central has about 36 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, about the same as the US as a whole and close to Pasadena as a whole.
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.
Theft is the most common crime in East Central, about 46% of everything reported, and it also accounts for 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 Pasadena
The Pasadena Police Department polices East Central; these figures cover Pasadena as a whole, 2022 to 2024.
In Pasadena as a whole, 42% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often in parking lots and garages: 52% of them, against 31% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (42%)
Night (midnight to 6 am)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (46%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Parking lots and garages (52%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Vandalism
Stores and businesses (23%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (50%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Aggravated assault
Streets and sidewalks (35%)
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 East Central compares with nearby neighborhoods
East Central has less crime than 5 of its 10 nearest neighborhoods.
Night lighting, density and walkability in East Central
East Central looks like a typical neighborhood on the traits that tend to go with crime.
Lit at nightSatellite images show which neighborhoods are lit at night, a sign of busy streets and businesses. Brightly lit places tend to report more theft and vandalism.100% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 85% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.22% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 78% of residents of US city neighborhoods
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. 56% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.C (34 of 100)US: 21Lower than for 51% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Show all 4
Tree coverThe share of land under tree canopy where people live. Leafy neighborhoods tend to report less robbery.15% where people liveUS: 21%Higher than for 68% of residents of US city neighborhoods
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 East Central
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs East Central about $907 a year per household, 25% 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 $17 million a year, or $828 per resident.
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 East Central 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 East Central, Pasadena, CA average a SchoolGrade of B-: 36% of students test proficient, against 35% projected for schools like them. Overall, they exceed expectations. See schools in East Central on SchoolGrade
