The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Salinas, CA
Salinas is a city of 178,600 in Monterey County and the main city of the Salinas metro area, home to 437,600 · Updated November 2026
Is Salinas, CA safe?
Crime in Salinas is moderate, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of B. Most US neighborhoods have little crime: 71% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime than Salinas. Violent crime grades B+ and property crime B. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Salinas run from A+ to F, so check the map below.
B
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 675 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
29% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Salinas as a whole, and 71% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Salinas scores 675.
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 Salinas, CA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Salinas, 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 Salinas
Robberies and arsons both run high. In Salinas, each runs at about double the US rate: 1.3 robberies and 0.26 arsons a year per 1,000 residents, against 0.62 and 0.12 nationally.
The safest and least safe parts of Salinas
Most of Salinas grades well: 57% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and 12% in areas graded D or F. Grades across Salinas run from A+ to F; 7% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
57%31%12%
A or B 57%C 31%D or F 12%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Salinas, the southwest side has the least crime and the center the most.
Is crime going up in Salinas?
Since 2019, reported property crime in Salinas is down 26%, while violent crime has held about steady. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 5.0 to 5.2 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 23 to 17 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, property crime rose 13%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
SalinasUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police department that serves Salinas. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Salinas
Violent, US
Property, Salinas
Property, US
2016
+28%
+4%
+33%
+15%
2017
+30%
+4%
+35%
+12%
2018
+25%
+0%
+22%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+6%
+4%
-4%
-8%
2021
+7%
+6%
-12%
-10%
2022
+6%
+5%
-19%
-6%
2023
-0%
+2%
-35%
-7%
2024
+3%
-4%
-26%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Salinas
CrimeGrade™ estimates Salinas has about 33 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 12% less than the US as a whole and 18% less than 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.
Theft is the most common crime in Salinas, about 33% of everything reported, but assault costs more, because each one does more harm.
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.
The Salinas Police Department's 2024 report to the FBI was missing some months of burglary; CrimeGrade™ filled them in from the department's own monthly pattern.
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 Salinas
Salinas has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Salinas, 3% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often at other places: 53% of them, against 7% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Other places (59%)
Night (midnight to 6 am)
Car theft
Other places (50%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Other places (53%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Other places (56%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (40%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Aggravated assault
Other places (59%)
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 Salinas compares with nearby cities
Of the 8 cities closest to Salinas, 7 have less crime. Chualar and Elkhorn have the least.
Two things set Salinas apart: it has 68% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally, and 3.3% of its homes standing empty, against 7.1% nationally. Places where many residents live in dense blocks tend to report more robbery and car theft, and they run high here.
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.68% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 89% of US city residents
Transit serviceBuses and trains an hour at the evening rush. Places with busy transit tend to report more theft and robbery. BestNeighborhood's Transit Grade for Salinas: D+ (25 of 100).NoneUS: noneLower than for 84% 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. 56% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.C- (30 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 81% 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.3.3% of homesUS: 7.1%Lower than for 83% of US city residents
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft.7.8 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Lower than for 75% of US city residents
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.1.1 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Lower than for 74% of US city residents
BestNeighborhood, a sister site of CrimeGrade™, ranks the neighborhoods of Salinas 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 Salinas
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Salinas about $1,629 a year per household, 35% more than the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $80 million a year.
Cost of crime per resident, per year
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, which comes almost entirely from violent crime, the full cost rises to about $264 million a year, or $1,475 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$13 million
$72
Rape
$5.2 million
$29
Robbery
$7.2 million
$40
Assault
$26 million
$145
Burglary
$2.7 million
$15
Theft
$9.8 million
$55
Vehicle theft
$10 million
$56
Arson
$1.1 million
$6
Vandalism
$5.0 million
$28
Total
$80 million
$448
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 Salinas 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. Salinas is the other kind of example: few people work in, shop in or visit it, so its crime per resident looks lower than its CrimeGrade™ suggests.
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 Salinas, CA average a SchoolGrade of D: 26% of students test proficient, against 27% projected for schools like them. Overall, they don't meet expectations. See schools in Salinas on SchoolGrade
