Safewise has published a list of California’s Safest Cities of 2024 and it does not include the City of Santa Ana.

Several Orange County citites did make the list including:

• Rancho Santa Margarita
• Aliso Viejo
• Yorba Linda
• Laguna Niguel
• Mission Viejo
• Lake Forest
• Irvine
• San Clemente

Santa Ana is the Orange County seat and that has attracted all sorts of riff-raff over the years including many transients and drug addicts. Santa Ana also continues to have a significant gang problem.

Several of the Santa Ana City Council Members support defunding the police including Jessie Lopez, Johnathan Hernandez and Ben Vazquez.

Residents also often complain about long wait times when they report crimes to the police.

Commercial and home burglaries have greatly increased in Santa Ana in the past few years as has auto theft and theft of materials left in automobiles. Domestic violence also continues to be a major problem in Santa Ana.

How the safest cities are ranked

Safewise use the most up-to-date FBI crime data as the backbone of their reports. This means they rely on voluntary, self-reported information that cities and jurisdictions across the country report through the FBI Summary Reporting System (SRS) and National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).

If you don’t see your city listed, it could be due to incomplete data or the failure to submit a report. For the 2024 reporting year, the most recent FBI data was released in October 2023, and accounts for crimes reported in calendar year 2022.