By Karen. Many visitors read about crime in San Francisco and wonder just how safe it is to travel here. There are many opinions on this, and I have my own after living here for many years, but I also wanted to give a more objective and balanced view of this subject. I collected data on San Francisco crime and other cities for comparison from the local police department and FBI statistics. It's not a pleasant subject, but I think it's important for someone who lives here to share candid information on this issue, along with some safety tips.
Hint: it's not as bad as you've heard Also, San Francisco's woes with dirty streets, drug addicts and homelessness have been in the news a lot, too. More on that later. I want our visitors to have a great experience when they travel here. And with a few safeguards, travelers can enjoy the city without undue worry. Key takeaways:. Most likely, nothing will happen!
But forewarned is forearmed. Sorry for the morbid statistics that follow;. Of course, being a city, San Francisco's crime rate is going to be worse than what you'll find in suburban or rural areas, but it's sort of low to intermediate when compared with other U. And the crime rate in San Francisco varies tremendously by neighborhood, as you would also expect.
There are a handful of areas that seem to produce the lion's share of the crime statistics. Some of these areas are near but not in prime tourist spots and others are in areas that tourists rarely see. Just recently, there were series of muggings near Alamo Square Painted Ladies and in Noe Valley, where women were robbed of their cell phones, but it appears that the perps have been identified and arrested and hopefully will be sent away!
They subsided quite a bit during the lockdown, but have risen again due to more people being out and about, including a return of tourists to the city. There has been a significant drop in car break-ins in the first quarter of , so hopefully things are turning around. For more details on where the crime in SF is, and crime maps , including the worst car break-in spots , jump to sections on:.
