San Antonio Crime Map: SAPD Data by Neighborhood

A San Antonio block can feel calm at noon and change after dark. A hotel, apartment, or parking lot a few streets over can sit inside a very different police pattern. City headlines miss that split.

This page gives the short verdict fast: reported crime in San Antonio is not spread evenly. The heaviest police file sits in a small group of ZIP codes, while outer-edge areas stay much quieter. The map helps from a distance. The ZIP tells the closer story.

The sharpest concentration sits near the core. 78207 led the city in total reported offenses over the last 12 months in the file, while 78205 led in offenses packed into a small area. North of downtown, 78216 stayed one of the busiest corridors, pushed by mall and airport traffic. South and southeast, 78223 carried one of the heaviest counts. On the far edges, places like 78260, 78266, and 78261 stayed near the bottom.

That split matters for daily choices and city living trends. A busy shopping zone, nightlife strip, or commuter route can swell the police count without saying much about a nearby side street. A dark ZIP on the map is a warning, not a verdict.

A few patterns stand out:

• About half of all recorded offenses fell in just 16 ZIP codes
• Most areas outside those pockets ran far lower
• Property crime and lower-level offenses made up much of the city’s file
• Many west, northwest, far north, and northeast ZIP codes moved down year over year
• A few central and southeast ZIP codes moved up instead

The central city remains the densest part of the case file. 78207 stood out for total volume and a felony share above the city mark. 78205 looked intense for a different reason: heavy visitor traffic, tight geography, and a small resident base. That can make the rate look harsher than the street-level risk for someone living nearby.

Midtown and Near North Central split between dense mixed-use streets and retail corridors. 78216 posted 6,077 offenses and 144.5 per 1,000 residents, but the area also fell 15.0% from the year before. 78212 moved the other way, up 1.6%. That makes the north-central picture uneven, not one single story.

South and Southeast San Antonio carried weight in both count and rate. 78223 logged 5,570 offenses and edged up 4.1%. 78224 posted the highest rate in that subarea at 160.2 per 1,000 residents, even as it fell 5.9%. High count and high rate are not always the same place.

Far West and Northwest San Antonio told a cooler story. Many of those ZIP codes dropped, some by double digits. 78249 and 78251 still carried heavy counts, but places tied to La Cantera and The Rim showed why maps need caution: 78257 had one of the city’s highest rates, yet the pressure there came from shopping and visitor traffic more than a simple residential pattern.

Far North and Northeast San Antonio showed the widest spread. 78218 and 78217 stayed active, both above 92 per 1,000 residents. Farther out, 78260 fell to 3.9 per 1,000, and 78261 recorded only 10 offenses in the 12-month file. Two ZIP codes can sit a short drive apart and read like different cities.

The map still has blind spots. SAPD records reported offenses, not every event. Public files do not include exact street points. ZIP codes are mail zones, not clean neighborhood borders. In busy commercial areas, per-capita rates can bend the picture because workers, shoppers, and visitors fill the streets long after residents go home.

That is why the best reading is simple: use the city map to spot concentration, then check the ZIP before making a call about where to live, park, walk, or book a stay. If a ZIP looks hot, the next step is not panic. It is checking the exact corridor, the offense mix, and the time of day.

The San Antonio file covers January 2023 through July 2026, with the source last updated on Aug. 15, 2026, at 10:30 a.m. For this snapshot, the clearest take is narrow and practical: the city’s crime story sits in pockets, and the pocket matters more than the headline.

1. Downtown and Near West Side

Incident Concentration

At the center of San Antonio, the map tightens.

78207 (Near West Side) carried 7,174 offenses in the 12 months ending July 2026, the highest count in the city. 78205 (Downtown/Riverwalk) carried 3,326 offenses in that same span, but its concentration was tighter: 3,394 offenses per square mile, the highest in San Antonio.^[1] One ZIP leads in total volume. The other leads in how closely the reports are packed together.

Dominant Offense Mix

The split is not just about volume. It also shows up in the kind of trouble police recorded.

The Near West Side posted a felony offense share of 26%, above the city average of 22%. That points to a heavier share of serious cases. Downtown sat at 15%, well below the city mark, with more of its file tilted toward larceny, retail theft, and lower-level misdemeanors linked to Riverwalk business traffic.^[1]

Recent Trend Direction

The two ZIP codes moved in opposite directions.

Downtown edged down. The Near West Side moved up. That makes 78207 stand out against a city pattern where many high-count ZIP codes have been posting double-digit drops.^[1] The comparison below shows where these central districts sit against nearby ZIPs and the city file.

Subarea vs. Citywide Pattern

ZIP Code	Area	Total Offenses	Per 1,000 Residents	Offenses per Square Mile	Annual Trend
78207	Near West Side	7,174	132.5	950	+8.1%
78205	Downtown/Riverwalk	3,326	n/a*	3,394	-2.7%
78204	South Downtown	1,556	130.3	560	-12.7%
78215	North Downtown	1,385	n/a*	1,319	-12.2%
Citywide	San Antonio	132,262	-	-	-

*Rates withheld for ZIP codes with fewer than 5,000 residents to avoid statistical distortion.^[1]

These ZIP counts show concentration, not street-by-street danger. A busy business strip inside one ZIP can push the total up fast. For ZIP-by-ZIP comparison in this part of the city, Aden's San Antonio ZIP reports break the same SAPD records down to the ZIP level.

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2. Midtown and Near North Central

Incident Concentration

Just north of downtown, the city changes shape. Office towers give way to shopping routes, apartment blocks, older homes, and traffic moving in and out of major commercial strips. On the map, this subarea breaks into two stories: retail ZIP codes with high rates per resident, and dense corridors where reports stack up block after block.

78216 (North Central airport-retail corridor) logged 6,077 offenses and ranked fourth in the city at 144.5 per 1,000 residents^[1]. The main engines there are North Star Mall and the San Antonio International Airport area^[1].

78212 (Midtown/Monte Vista/Tobin Hill) recorded 3,346 offenses at 125.5 per 1,000 residents, making it the main Midtown concentration point^[1]. 78201 (Jefferson / Near North Central) posted 3,927 offenses at 90.4 per 1,000 residents, with 549 offenses per square mile^[1]. By sheer density, 78215 (Pearl/Broadway Corridor) stands out most in this subarea at 1,319 offenses per square mile^[1].

Dominant Offense Mix

The offense mix tracks the ground beneath it. In 78216, larceny and theft lead the file, matching the retail setting^[1]. In places built around stores, parking lots, and constant visitor flow, the per-resident rate reflects more than the people who sleep there. It also reflects the people passing through.

Recent Trend Direction

Most ZIP codes in this section moved down from the year before. 78216 fell 15.0%, the steepest drop in the subarea. 78213 (Near North Central/Dellview) dropped 10.9%, and 78201 declined 6.7%^[1].

One area moved the other way. 78212 (Midtown) edged up 1.6%^[1].

Subarea vs. Citywide Pattern

ZIP Code	Neighborhood/Corridor	Total Offenses	Per 1,000 Residents	Per Sq Mile	Annual Trend
78216	North Central airport-retail corridor	6,077	144.5	432	−15.0%
78201	Jefferson / Near North Central	3,927	90.4	549	−6.7%
78212	Midtown / Monte Vista / Tobin Hill	3,346	125.5	475	+1.6%
78209	Near North Central (Alamo Heights area)	2,706	62.4	270	−3.8%
78213	Near North Central (Dellview)	2,642	63.5	339	−10.9%
78215	Pearl / Broadway Corridor	1,385	n/a*	1,319	−12.2%

*Rate withheld for ZIP codes with fewer than 5,000 residents to avoid statistical distortion^[1].

The gap inside this subarea is sharp. 78216's rate per resident is more than double 78209's. At the same time, 78215 is the tightest concentration on the map, even with fewer total offenses than 78212.

Next, the file moves south and southeast, where total volume climbs and the offense mix starts to change.

3. South Side and Southeast San Antonio

Incident Concentration

South Side and Southeast San Antonio do not move as one block. The map splits between ZIP codes with more total reports and ZIP codes with higher rates.

78224 posts the highest rate in this subarea at 160.2 offenses per 1,000 residents^[1]. 78223 carries the heaviest total file, with 5,570 offenses in the trailing 12 months from August 2025 through July 2026, plus a density of 130 offenses per square mile^[1].

At the far southern edge, the picture goes quiet. 78264 recorded only 95 total offenses and 8.1 offenses per 1,000 residents, placing it among the city's lowest-rate ZIP codes^[1].

Dominant Offense Mix

Most reports here fall into the city's everyday public-safety file, not its darkest one. Property crime and lower-level offenses make up most of the count, led by simple assault, property damage, and theft from motor vehicles^[1].

Arrest patterns track that same mix. 78223 and 78210 each show a 24% felony share, a little above the citywide mark of 22%^[1].

Recent Trend Direction

The recent movement cuts in two directions.

On the Southeast side, the numbers are edging up. 78223 rose 4.1%, 78222 gained 3.9%, 78210 increased 2.8%, and 78221 added 1.2%^[1].

Several South Side ZIP codes moved down instead. 78224 fell 5.9%, 78214 dropped 7.3%, and 78211 declined 2.6%^[1].

78264 shows a 28.4% increase, but that jump sits on just 95 offenses^[1]. In a file that small, percentages can swing hard from a small change in the count.

Subarea vs. Citywide Pattern

ZIP Code	Neighborhood Area	Total Offenses	Per 1,000 Residents	Annual Trend
78223	Southeast (Brooks/City Base)	5,570	97.2	+4.1%
78210	South Side / Southeast	3,574	102.9	+2.8%
78221	South Side	3,536	85.0	+1.2%
78224	South Side	3,311	160.2	−5.9%
78211	South Side	2,656	86.8	−2.6%
78214	South Side	2,599	118.8	−7.3%
78222	Southeast	1,779	71.1	+3.9%
78264	Far South Side	95	8.1	+28.4%

The next section moves west and north, where the pattern changes again.

4. Far West and Northwest San Antonio

Incident Concentration

Far West and Northwest flips the pattern again. The pressure sits in busy commercial ZIP codes, while many residential sections stay much quieter.

This subarea splits cleanly in two: places with heavy report volume, and places where the residential rate stays low. 78249 (UTSA/Northwest) logged 3,970 offenses across the trailing 12 months from August 2025 through July 2026, putting it among the city's highest-count ZIP codes. 78251 (Westover Hills/Far West) was close behind with 3,878 offenses^[1].

At the other end of the map, 78253 (Far West/Alamo Ranch) recorded 590 total offenses and 8.7 offenses per 1,000 residents. That places it among the city's lowest-rate ZIP codes^[1].

78257 (La Cantera/The Rim) needs a second look. Its rate reached 164.0 offenses per 1,000 residents, the second-highest in the city, but that number is pushed up by shopping and entertainment traffic rather than by a residential pattern^[1].

Dominant Offense Mix

In 78257 and 78256, the offense mix follows the parking lots, storefronts, and steady stream of visitors around La Cantera and The Rim. Larceny and fraud lead there.

Across the rest of the subarea, the main pattern shifts. Simple assault, property damage, and theft from motor vehicles show up most often^[1].

Recent Trend Direction

Most of this subarea moved down, and some of the drops were steep. 78230, 78257, 78256, 78254, and 78245 each posted double-digit declines, ranging from 14.1% to 18.3%^[1].

78249 and 78251 also fell, at 9.8% and 8.6%. 78253 edged up 1.2%, but with only 590 offenses, that change is too small to read as a clear turn in the pattern^[1].

Subarea vs. Citywide Pattern

The split is plain on the map. 78249 and 78251 lead this subarea in total offenses. 78257 and 78256 lead in per-resident intensity, driven by commercial traffic more than residential exposure.

ZIP Code	Neighborhood Area	Total Offenses	Per 1,000 Residents	Annual Trend
78249	UTSA/Northwest	3,970	64.3	−9.8%
78251	Westover Hills/Far West	3,878	62.9	−8.6%
78240	Medical Center/Northwest	3,646	63.9	−2.6%
78230	Vance Jackson/Northwest	3,615	85.9	−17.3%
78245	Far West/Lackland Area	3,575	39.1	−14.1%
78238	Leon Valley Area	3,023	115.2	−9.5%
78250	Great Northwest	2,036	35.2	−8.7%
78257	La Cantera/The Rim	1,704	164.0	−17.2%
78256	The Rim/Far Northwest	1,237	103.0	−18.3%
78254	Helotes Area/Far Northwest	1,140	14.5	−14.5%
78253	Far West Side	590	8.7	+1.2%

Source: SAPD NIBRS Group A offenses, trailing 12 months ending July 2026 ^[1].

This part of San Antonio is moving downward as a group, with several ZIP codes posting double-digit year-over-year declines. The hottest-looking rates in 78257 and 78256 come from major shopping corridors and visitor flow, not from a simple residential danger story.

Next: Far North and Northeast San Antonio.

5. Far West and Northwest San Antonio

Incident Concentration

This subarea breaks in two.

At one end, 78261 posted just 10 offenses, or 0.4 per 1,000 residents. At the other, 78218 and 78217 posted 3,528 and 3,235 offenses, equal to 92.1 and 95.3 per 1,000 residents ^[1].

That split matters. Quiet residential pockets and busy corridor trouble can sit inside the same subarea, only a few miles apart.

78260 on the Far North Side ranked as the second-safest ZIP citywide at 3.9 per 1,000 residents, with 147 total offenses. 78266 on the Far Northeast ranked fourth-safest at 8.5 per 1,000 residents ^[1].

Dominant Offense Mix

In the low-count Far North ZIP codes, the file is too thin to trust any fixed offense pattern. A handful of reports can swing the mix fast from month to month.

In the busier Northeast ZIP codes, the pattern is clearer. Simple assault, theft from motor vehicles, and property damage lead the file ^[1].

78234 covers Fort Sam Houston. It shows a low rate of 5.1 per 1,000 residents, but that number comes with a catch: SAPD is not the primary agency there ^[1].

Recent Trend Direction

Most of the subarea moved down over the last year.

• 78266: −33.3%
• 78260: −21.0%
• 78258: −10.2%
• 78218: −10.0%
• 78233: −8.9%
• 78244: flat
• 78217: −1.6%

The direction is mostly calm, but the pace is uneven. Some ZIP codes are drifting down. Others are barely moving ^[1].

Subarea vs. Citywide Pattern

The spread below runs from the quiet edge of the Far North to the busier Northeast corridors, where the street file stays active late.

ZIP Code	Neighborhood Area	Total Offenses	Per 1,000 Residents	Annual Trend
78218	Northeast	3,528	92.1	−10.0%
78217	Northeast	3,235	95.3	−1.6%
78247	Northeast (Wetmore)	2,356	45.3	−5.6%
78233	Northeast	2,254	47.3	−8.9%
78258	Far North (Stone Oak)	2,122	41.1	−10.2%
78259	Far North	1,132	42.0	−6.1%
78260	Far North Side	147	3.9	−21.0%
78266	Far Northeast Side	62	8.5	−33.3%
78261	Far North Side	10	0.4	n/a

Source: SAPD NIBRS Group A offenses, trailing 12 months ending July 2026 ^[1].

This is where city maps start to blur the truth. One dark corridor can sit next to a quiet residential ZIP, and the map can make them look like the same story. The next section puts the map view beside the ZIP-level file.

What Parts of San Antonio Are Actually Safe?

Citywide Map View vs. Neighborhood-Level Detail

A citywide crime map is useful from a distance. It helps compare San Antonio with other major Texas or U.S. cities. But once the view drops to a street, a block, or a ZIP code, that same map starts to blur the parts that matter most.

That blur shows up fast in the retail-heavy ZIPs mentioned above.

In the trailing 12 months ending July 2026, SAPD recorded 132,262 Group A offenses across 62 ZIP codes, with about half concentrated in just 16 ZIP codes ^[1]. A single citywide rate smooths that pattern out. The pressure is not spread evenly across the map.

Feature	Citywide Map View	Neighborhood / ZIP-Level Detail
Geographic Granularity	Entire City of San Antonio	Individual ZIP codes (62 total) [1]
Incident Visibility	High-level totals and citywide rates	Specific NIBRS Group A offense types and 43-month trends [1]
Best Use Case	Comparing San Antonio to other major Texas or U.S. cities [1]	Decisions about where to live, commute, or invest [1]
Key Limitation	Hides heavy concentration of crime in specific pockets [1]	Can be skewed by retail corridors with small resident populations [1]

The map can point to where trouble collects. It can also distort the scene.

Downtown 78205 is the clearest example. The ZIP has a small resident base and heavy visitor traffic, so its per-capita rate can make resident risk look higher than it is. The same pattern can show up in ZIP codes built around malls, the airport, or other mixed-use corridors ^[1].

Place and timing are separate files.

For block-by-block decisions, ZIP-level records are the right starting point. But the clock changes the picture: 37% of violent-crime 911 calls occur from 9 PM to 2 AM, with the peak landing around 10 PM on weekend nights ^[1]. That means a ZIP can look one way at noon and another after dark.

The free San Antonio ZIP pages on Aden's ZIP bring that picture into one frame: offense mix, trend lines, and activity alerts in one place.

The next section tests those blind spots directly.

Pros, Cons, and Key Limits of SAPD Crime Map Data

Those patterns come with tradeoffs.

SAPD map data is useful for reading trends, but the map can drift off course if its geography and timing are taken too literally.

Its strongest trait is consistency. SAPD publishes incident records through the City of San Antonio's Open Data portal in NIBRS Group A format, so offense categories stay the same across the file ^[1]. That makes week-to-week and month-to-month pattern checks more reliable.

Its weakest point is location detail. Public SAPD data does not include street addresses, latitude, or longitude. The smallest area it gives the public is the ZIP code ^[1]. At that scale, a single ZIP can fold together apartments, strip malls, office towers, and freeway lanes. And if an incident was never reported, it never enters the map ^[1].

Feature	Strength	Limit
Geography	ZIP-level filtering for broad trends	No street-level precision; ZIPs are mail boundaries, not neighborhoods [1]
Crime types	NIBRS Group A coverage across reported offenses	Excludes Group B offenses such as DUI and public intoxication [1]
Population rates	Per-capita figures help compare residential areas	Can distort risk in retail corridors and visitor-heavy areas like Downtown or the Riverwalk [1]
Update cadence	Monthly updates; useful for trend reading	Lags real time by 2–4 weeks, so it cannot work as a live alert system [1][2]
Event timing	Shows reporting rhythms	Often shows report time, not the time the incident happened [1]

Two limits matter most: rate distortion and report timing.

First, rate distortion. A small slice of records carries blank or unmappable ZIP codes, so those cases fall out of area totals ^[1]. Per-capita rates can also overstate risk in commercial ZIPs like 78205 and 78216. The count reflects more than residents. Workers, shoppers, and visitors move through those zones all day, and the map does not separate them out.

Second, report timing. The reported date can differ from the date the crime happened, which bends the weekly pattern. Property crimes often pile up on Mondays because weekend incidents get filed later ^[1]. If the goal is near-live timing, the better place to look is 911 Calls for Service, which are logged when the call comes in ^[1].

The next section pulls these limits into the neighborhood patterns above.

Conclusion

Across San Antonio, the pattern holds. A small set of ZIP codes carries most of the recorded volume. SAPD records place the heaviest load in 78207, 78216, and 78223, while 78261 sits on the city's quieter outer edge with the lowest volume ^[1].

But the case does not end with volume. The street-level story inside each ZIP matters more. 78216 still logs a heavy count, yet the file has cooled 15.0% year over year. In most parts of the city, property crime and lower-level offenses make up the bulk of what police record ^[1].

Use the city map first. It shows where the reports gather. Then move closer, into ZIP-level detail, and check the offense mix, the per-capita rate, and the trend line before making a call about where to live, compare, or avoid.

Aden's ZIP San Antonio pages combine SAPD offense data, 43-month trend lines, and ZIP-level rate comparisons. In San Antonio, the map works best when citywide concentration leads the eye, and ZIP-level context delivers the answer.

FAQs

How should I read a high-crime ZIP code?

Treat a high-crime ZIP on an SAPD-based map as a broad warning light, not a block-by-block verdict. A ZIP can hold very different ground in the same boundary - quiet housing, busy retail strips, office clusters, late-night streets. Public maps usually stop at the ZIP line. The street itself can tell a different story.

Check the incident types and the time window on the screen. A short window can distort the picture. So can a small resident count, or a place that pulls heavy daily traffic like downtown and major shopping corridors. Those areas collect more police reports because more people pass through them.

Set the ZIP against its own past pattern before judging risk. Then read what the records cannot show. The map marks where police logged trouble, but it does not settle the full case on every block.

Why do Downtown and retail ZIPs look so high?

Downtown and retail ZIPs can read hot on the map for a simple reason: SAPD records incidents where reports are made and where calls are logged, not where most residents sleep at night.

That matters in the city core. Blocks packed with stores, offices, bars, parking garages, and steady foot traffic collect more reports. The map can look darker there because more people move through those streets and more incidents get recorded at those addresses.

SAPD makes the same point directly: dense, high-traffic areas may show more reported crime because of reporting location and activity levels, not because those areas always carry more underlying crime.

What data limits should I keep in mind?

SAPD crime maps show reported offenses. They do not show convictions, and some reports may later be marked unfounded.

The public file also strips out exact addresses and coordinates. In many cases, ZIP code is the smallest area left on the map.

That matters. A ZIP code is a mail boundary, not a neighborhood line. It can hint at where trouble clusters, but only in broad strokes.

The timing has its own blind spot. Updates usually land once a month, so the newest weeks may not appear yet. The counts also track offenses, not one-to-one events, which means a single incident can add more than one offense to the record.