Petaluma Ranks Among 100 Safest Cities In California: 2020 List

PETALUMA, CA — Petaluma was ranked among the 100 safest cities in California, according to a recent report from Safewise, a security product review site. On the list for 2020, for which Safewise weighed recent local crime reports against FBI crime statistics from 2018 — the most recent year for which complete information was available — Petaluma was ranked the 63rd-safest city in California.

This year, Danville in Contra Costa County remained at the top of the list as the safest city in California. Its neighbors, the cities of Martinez, San Ramon and Oakley, were listed among the top 50 for safety.

In the North Bay, Novato was ranked the 32nd-safest city in California, while Central Marin (Corte Madera, San Anselmo, Larkspur and Greenbrae) was ranked 55th, Napa the 74th-safest, Vacaville the 85th-safest, Santa Rosa ranked 123rd and Rohnert Park ranked 131st.

Safewise said it ranked the cities by comparing U.S. Census Bureau population data with crime statistics submitted by law enforcement agencies to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program in 2018.

The city of Petaluma's ranking was based on a population of 61,289, a violent crime rate of 3.2 per 1,000 residents, and a property crime rate of 14.5 per 1,000 people.

For Californians who don't see their city on Safewise's list for 2020, which ranks 231 cities for safety, it means the city either fell below the site's population threshold or the city did not submit a complete crime report to the FBI in 2018.

"We calculated crime rates for every city in the state that met our population threshold, which is based on the median population of the state," Safewise said.

While California requires officials to keep crime statistics, other states do not.

Safewise found 16 percent of Californians have experienced violent crime in the past year, 38 percent have experienced property crime in the past year and 10 percent of people have been impacted by a mass shooting.

A Safewise survey of Californians found nearly six in 10 worry about crime every day and are more concerned about safety than the average American, but crime rates in the Golden State are far below national averages.

More than half of Californians surveyed said they were most worried about a stranger killing them, according to Safewise. Just 36 percent of Americans had the same concern.

Murder constitutes one percent of violent crime incidents in California, according to Safewise.

Robbery incidents comprised about a third of all violent crime in California.

When it comes to property crime, seven in 10 Californians worried about break-ins, though larceny-theft comprises 66 percent of all property crimes, according to Safewise.

Six in 10 Americans are also most worried about break-ins.

The Safewise survey was conducted online in September and October of 2019, and weighted by demographic information with a margin of error of ±1.4 percent.

Read the full report here.

Patch Local Editor Courtney Teague contributed to this report.