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The town of Danville was once again named the safest place in California following a decline in both violent and property crime last year, according to the 12th annual “Safest Cities Report” from SafeWise, an independent safety research organization.
Every year, SafeWise publishes its top 10 safest cities list for each state in the U.S. after analyzing data from the FBI — the organization has been doing this since 2015. Danville held the second place title last year, but the town has consistently remained one of the safest places for the last few years.
“We are extremely proud of our community policing approach — built on thoughtful planning, strong public safety services, and a genuine partnership with our residents — which continues to make Danville a safe and welcoming place to live,” Danville Mayor Newell Arnerich said in a press release from the town last week.
The annual state rankings provide a “data-driven snapshot of reported crime trends to illustrate relative risk among cities, with results adjusted for population to allow for fair comparison of both large and small cities”, according to the press release.
“Rankings are based on violent and property crime rates, calculated per 1,000 residents, and California’s top 10 safest cities have populations of 35,000 to 122,000,” the press release stated.
Danville’s statistics show that, compared to the over 20 property crime incidents rate per 1,000 residents at both the national and state levels, Danville’s property crime rate is 5.9, which is a decrease from 7.4 in the prior year.
The town’s violent crime rate in the 2026 list, according to SafeWise, is 0.6, which went down by 0.2 in the 2025 rankings and is lower than both the national and state average by at least three points.
“With the support of the Town Council and under the leadership of Police Chief Thomas Rossberg, our Police Department works hand-in-hand with the community to educate, prevent, and enforce in the interest of public safety,” Arnerich stated in the Feb. 12 press release. “This shared commitment is a key reason Danville has been recognized by SafeWise as California’s safest city for six of the past nine years.”
Danville held the No.1 safest city title from 2018 to 2022, according to the press release.
But Danville isn’t the only Tri-Valley city that was ranked on SafeWise’s “Top 10 Safest Cities in California” list. According to the organization, San Ramon was ranked as the ninth-safest city in the state.
While San Ramon’s property crime rate went down from last year, its property crime rate increased by a couple of points, according to the SafeWise report.
The safety research organization also noted that all of the California cities that made this year’s reported fewer than 1.5 violent crimes per 1,000 people and that all of the cities have a population of at least 35,000 “making their low per capita crime rates even more impressive”.
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