Legacy crime files
All five indicators use the legacy LAPD data.
Los Angeles · Methods & sources
Know what you’re looking at.
Public records, local boundaries, visible limitations. The context behind every Los Angeles chart.
2016–2025Full years shown
99 councilsCertified local boundaries
LAPDPolice data source
01 · Reading the timeline
A reporting change, not one continuous series.
LAPD changed to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) on 7 March 2024. NIBRS can count more than one offense in an incident, so values before and after the switch do not have the same basis.
A mixed year
Assault, burglary and robbery move to NIBRS from 7 March. Auto theft and grand theft remain on the legacy file through December.
NIBRS for all five
Every indicator uses the NIBRS offense file. Apparent changes across the switch include a change in reporting.
2026 is year-to-date, through 2026-09-19. It is available as a separately labelled partial-year view and is excluded from the ten-full-year comparison.
02 · Scope
Five local indicators.
These are selected LAPD categories, not all recorded crime. Each city retains its own definitions; the Los Angeles and Toronto figures are not a single comparable series.
- Assault
- Assault indicators from the selected LAPD offense codes. Homicide and sexual assault are excluded.
- Auto Theft
- Motor vehicle theft. The legacy file supplies this indicator through the end of 2024.
- Burglary
- Premises burglary. Theft from a vehicle is excluded.
- Robbery
- Robbery offenses in the accepted LAPD series.
- Grand Theft
- Grand theft above California’s $950.01 threshold. This is a different cut from Toronto’s theft-over category.
Hate-crime and money-laundering sources have not yet been added for Los Angeles. Their views explain that coverage gap. The five indicators above cannot stand in for either subject.
03 · Place & population
Councils, counts and rates.
Neighbourhood councils
The map uses the City of Los Angeles’s 99 certified neighbourhood councils, not LAPD divisions. Reports are assigned using the source’s hundred-block coordinates. The dashboard shows council totals; it does not plot individual incident locations.
2.34% of full-year indicator records could not be placed in a council. Those 25,048 reports remain in the city totals, so council sums are smaller than the citywide total.
How rates are calculated
Counts are the default. Rate per 10,000 divides the count by resident population and multiplies by 10,000. It provides a population-adjusted lens, not a prediction of individual risk.
Citywide rates use annual U.S. Census Bureau city estimates: 2010-based estimates for 2016–2019 and 2020-based estimates for 2020–2025. That denominator changes base in 2020.
Council rates use a fixed 2020 Census population. Each block group is assigned to the council containing its internal point, so the population is an allocation, not an annual council estimate. Visitors and daytime populations are outside that denominator.
04 · Source records
Follow the numbers.
LAPD · Crime Data from 2010 to 20192016–2019 occurrence dates · legacy file ↗LAPD · Crime Data from 2020 to 2024Legacy records, with indicator-specific 2024 cutoffs ↗LAPD · NIBRS Offenses DatasetOffense records from the March 2024 reporting change ↗City of Los Angeles · Certified Neighborhood CouncilsGeography for the local map and council totals ↗U.S. Census Bureau · City population estimates2010-based vintage · 2016–2019 denominators ↗U.S. Census Bureau · City population estimates2020-based vintage · 2020–2025 denominators ↗U.S. Census Bureau · 2020 California populationBlock-group population used for council rates · ZIP ↗
Police data: Los Angeles Police Department. Boundaries: City of Los Angeles. Population: U.S. Census Bureau. The legacy police datasets are published as CC0; the NIBRS dataset does not specify CC0 and is used under the city portal’s terms.
About this data
How to read these figures
- What does “crime” mean for Los Angeles?
- Crime by neighbourhood council means the indicators Los Angeles Police Department publishes for Los Angeles (2016–2025). They are reported incident or offence counts, not arrests, charges, or a safety score. The same heading in another city is not the same offence.
- Where do the numbers come from?
- Police figures come from Los Angeles Police Department. Area boundaries come from City of Los Angeles · certified neighbourhood councils. Rates, when a denominator exists, use U.S. Census Bureau · population and are shown per 10,000 residents. A missing year, indicator, or boundary stays missing.
- How often is this updated?
- The site is updated periodically, with no fixed public schedule and no live feed. Comparable charts use full years. A year-to-date control, when the page has one, labels the partial year separately.
- What does this not show?
- Drug offences and overdose deaths are separate series, not part of these neighbourhood councils. There is no single cross-city crime index. Counting rules and source links are on the Los Angeles about page.