Pacifica drops from 21st to 40th safest city in California

(Photo by ejbSF)

SafeWise, a security product review site, has placed Pacifica at the number 40 spot on its seventh annual Safest Cities Report.

Last year, Pacifica held the number 21 spot, which was the largest decrease in the report.

This year, the city had a population of 38,938 and a median income of $115,602. Both violent crime and petty crime significantly increased from last year: from 1.8 to 2.2 per 1,000 and from 10.2 to 13, respectively.

Danville, California, also in the Bay Area, came in at number one out of 1,345 total California cities.

Safewise used crime statistics, data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, demographic information, and the results of its State of Safety research study to come up with the rankings.

After living in Pacifica for a decade, I can attest to it being a safe place (I have experience zero crime, knock on wood, even in the past year when crime increased), and I have friends who don't even own a key to their house. I'm actually surprised Pacifica is not higher on the list, but Southern California populated most of the first 10 rankings.

The top 10 safest cities in California

1. Danville.
2. Rancho Santa Margarita.
3. Moorpark.
4. Rancho Palos Verdes.
5. Aliso Viejo.
6. Lake Forest.
7. Yorba Linda.
8. Laguna Niguel.
9. Mission Viejo.
10. Lincoln

The top three cities hold their spots for the second year in a row. Baldwin Park, California was the most improved city this year, jumping from number 100 to number 50.

Only 40% of Californians feel safe in their state, with 72% worried about gun violence and 77% concerned about the pandemic.