San Diego police figures show low and falling crime. SDPD says overall crime fell 6.3% in 2025 and counted 27 murders, the fewest since the late 1960s. Car break-ins and car thefts are more common than robberies and assaults, and the beaches near the Mexican border are often closed because of water quality. We read each source on 26 October 2026.
Is there a travel advisory?
No. The State Department issues travel advisories for other countries, not for a US city. For San Diego, the useful official sources are the city police and the county's beach water map.
What the SDPD figures say
SDPD published its 2025 annual crime report and a news release on 9 March 2026. We found no 2026 report yet.
Note: Overall crime in the city fell 6.3% in 2025, after a 1.5% fall in 2024 and 2.7% in 2023. Crimes against persons fell 3.2%. Crimes against property fell 11.6% in the report's table (SDPD news release, 9 Mar 2026, and 2025 Annual Crime Statistics Report, read 26 Oct 2026)
Note: 2025 against 2024: murders 27 against 36. Robberies 962 against 1,080. Aggravated assaults 4,351 against 4,528. Sexual assaults 738 against 793. Nonfatal shootings 96 against 121. SDPD says murders have not been this low since the late 1960s, and robberies not since 1970 (same report)
Note: SDPD puts the 2025 violent crime rate at 4.1 per 1,000 residents and calls it "one of the lowest of major cities in the nation." This rate counts homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. National figures for 2025 were not yet out when SDPD wrote the report (same report)
What these numbers do not tell you:
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They are counts for the whole city of San Diego. The report has charts by council district, but no figure for the Gaslamp Quarter, Pacific Beach, La Jolla or any other neighborhood.
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They do not say who the victims were, so there is no figure for visitors.
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They do not cover other cities in the county, such as Coronado, Chula Vista or Imperial Beach.
Car break-ins are the crime to plan for
Note: SDPD counted 3,735 thefts from motor vehicles in 2025, down 24.7% from 4,960. It counted 4,261 stolen vehicles, down 21.8%, and says the city last had this few car thefts in 1972. Only 2.2% of thefts from cars were cleared in 2025 (2025 Annual Crime Statistics Report, read 26 Oct 2026)
Together that is about 8,000 car crimes, more than the 5,313 robberies and aggravated assaults in the same report. If you rent a car, leave nothing in sight inside it, including bags, chargers and coats. A theft from a car is rarely solved, so a stolen bag is likely gone for good.
Check the beach water before you swim
San Diego County tests the water at beaches and bays and posts the results on its Beach and Bay map. Its motto is "Check in before you get in."
Note: County Beach and Bay map, last updated 26 Oct 2026 at 11:24: 13 closures and 9 advisories. Closures: Imperial Beach at Border Field State Park and the Tijuana Slough refuge (since 13 Oct 2025), the Imperial Beach municipal beach including the pier (since 6 and 8 Oct 2026), Silver Strand State Beach (since 9 Oct 2026), and Coronado city beaches at the Main Lifeguard Tower, North Beach and Avenida Lunar (since 15 Oct 2026) (San Diego County Department of Environmental Health and Quality, read 26 Oct 2026)
Note: Advisories on the same map: La Jolla Cove (since 29 Sep 2026), Children's Pool in La Jolla (since 1 Sep 1997), Dog Beach at the San Diego River outlet in Ocean Beach (since 22 Oct 2026), and several swim areas in Mission Bay, including Tecolote Shores, De Anza Cove, Leisure Lagoon, Vacation Isle and Enchanted Cove (since 15 or 22 Oct 2026). One more advisory was at Swami's in Encinitas (same map)
Note: The city lifeguard page showed a coastal flood warning in effect until 29 October 2026 at 1 p.m. PDT (City of San Diego Lifeguard Services, read 26 Oct 2026)
All the closures were on the southern coast, near the Mexican border. The beaches in central San Diego that most visitors use, such as Mission Beach, Pacific Beach and La Jolla Shores, had no closure or advisory on the map that day. This changes week to week, so check the map on the day you plan to swim.
Downtown, the Gaslamp Quarter and night
We found no official San Diego source that gives crime by neighborhood or by time of day in a form we could read. SDPD's crime statistics page links a Neighborhood Crime Summary Dashboard, which it says shows citywide and neighborhood crime "in near real-time." It also links a crime map run by a third party. Look up the streets near your hotel there for your dates.
Day trips to Tijuana
Tijuana is in Mexico, so the State Department's Mexico advisory applies.
Note: The State Department's travel advisory data feed lists the Mexico advisory as "Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution", dated late May 2026, for the country overall. It names terrorism, crime and kidnapping. The full advisory gives a level for each Mexican state, but travel.state.gov showed our reader a security check, so we could not read the level for Baja California (cadataapi.state.gov feed, read 26 Oct 2026)
Read the full advisory yourself before you cross. If you are not a US citizen, check that your visa or status lets you come back into the US before you go.
Who to call
Note: Emergency: 911. SDPD non-emergency: 619-531-2000 or 858-484-3154. You can also file some police reports online on the SDPD "Report a Crime" page (SDPD contact page, read 26 Oct 2026)
Our own advice
This part is not from an official source. Keep nothing on show in a parked car. Check the county beach map on the morning you swim, and swim near a lifeguard tower. Ask your hotel which streets it would walk at night. For weather and the best months, read our best time guide.
What we checked and what can change
Read on 26 October 2026: SDPD's news release of 9 March 2026 and its 2025 Annual Crime Statistics Report; SDPD's crime statistics and contact pages; the San Diego County Beach and Bay water quality map (closures and advisories lists, updated 26 October 2026 at 11:24); the City of San Diego lifeguard page; and the State Department's travel advisory data feed.
Not confirmed: any 2026 crime figures, any figure for a single neighborhood or time of day, crime figures for Coronado, Chula Vista or Imperial Beach (separate cities), the state level for Baja California in the Mexico advisory, and what each beach status means in detail (see the county map's legend). We did not visit San Diego for this page.
