Los Cabos Is A Very Safe Destination Despite Having The Highest Crime Rate In Baja California Sur

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The updated safety rankings for the cities in Baja California Sur, the Mexican state where Los Cabos is located, were released by local authorities. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Los Cabos once again topped the list and essentially has to be considered as the city with the “highest” crime rate in the state. The rankings, though, don’t do Los Cabos a ton of justice. 

Local authorities provide the information based on a red, yellow, and green light system to determine where more criminal acts are committed throughout the state. The rating system is made up of a list of crimes that can occur in any of the cities during each month.

This list of crimes includes things like homicide, extortion, kidnappings, vehicle robbery, and home burglary, amongst other crimes. Out of 11 different types of crimes that are categorized, Cabo is in the red in 5 of the categories.

The Total Crime Numbers Are Actually Low, Considering Cabo’s Population

The reason why the Cabo region is in the red in 5 categories is because out of the crimes listed, the number of those crimes reported within Cabo is higher than the state average. This grading system is based on the number of crimes committed per city, even if these cities aren’t necessarily comparable by population.

The Los Cabos municipality, which includes Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo, is home to at least 351,000 people (according to the 2020 census). You have to add to that the tourists that arrive throughout the year. From there, La Paz is the second-largest city, with 250,000 people reportedly living there as of 2020.

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These two cities are being compared directly with cities like Loreto, which is home to around 20,000 people, and Comondú, where about 83,000 people live.

Although authorities are grading on a bit of a curve to make up for the population disparity, the number of crimes that take place in Los Cabos is still considerably low. For example, there were only 7 extortion cases in Los Cabos throughout January, 2 victims of homicide, and no instances of kidnappings. 

Home burglaries are still one of the biggest safety concerns within Los Cabos, with 36 instances being reported in January. Sadly this number tends to go up when robbers know that Cabo homes that are used strictly as vacation homes sit empty.

The other stat that could be alarming is the 64 injuries due to physical alterations that took place throughout the month. This crime can be considered an attempted robbery instance, but even bar fights can increase this stat.        

What Type of Incidents Should Travelers Be Worried About?

As previously stated, the rise in injuries due to physical altercations is certainly the most concerning stat overall. Those went up by almost 10 instances from 56 in December. Having said this, there haven’t been too many reports about tourists being assaulted in Los Cabos or anything like that in the previous months. Therefore, it’s possible that most of these situations have occurred amongst the general population.

Extortion cases are perhaps the most concerning issue for tourists in Los Cabos. Extortion can include all sorts of scams that take place in a particular city. Even though there were only 7 reported cases throughout January in Los Cabos, that still puts the city in a red light level since that number is above the state average. Extortion by phone has been known to affect tourists in Los Cabos and other parts of Mexico. 

The best way to avoid these situations is to be very diligent about who you’re giving your phone number out to as a traveler. In most cases, these calls come from outside the Cabo area. However, people can fall victim to these scams and wire money to robbers.