Is Long Branch Safe? An Honest Look at the Etobicoke Crime Data (2026)

Last updated 9 August 2026. Figures are Toronto Police Service open data for calendar year 2025, the most recent complete year published, expressed per 100,000 residents unless stated otherwise. Long Branch is one of the City of Toronto’s 158 official neighbourhoods (population 13,151). Sources at the bottom.

Quick answer

Yes, on the reported data. Long Branch recorded 6 robberies, 24 break-and-enters, 21 auto thefts and 76 assaults in 2025 among 13,151 residents. Every one of those rates sat below the Toronto average, and the robbery rate of 46 per 100,000 was well under the city’s 78.

On the five main indicators combined it ranked 103rd of Toronto’s 158 neighbourhoods, where 158 is the lowest rate in the city. The trend is flat to improving: robberies have fallen from 30 in 2019 to 6 in 2025.

The 2025 numbers

2025, per 100,000 residents Long Branch Toronto Count
Assault 578 768 76
Break and enter 183 190 24
Robbery 46 78 6
Auto theft 160 225 21
Theft from a motor vehicle 129 212 17
Theft over $5,000 23 61 3

Long Branch’s theft-over rate of 23 per 100,000 was the 19th lowest of Toronto’s 158 neighbourhoods. Its robbery rate was 41st lowest, and its auto theft rate 60th lowest.

The direction of travel matters more than the level

A single year in a neighbourhood of 13,000 people is noisy. The multi-year picture is more useful, and in Long Branch it is reassuring rather than alarming.

Counts 2019 2023 2024 2025
Assault 59 95 77 76
Break and enter 29 27 21 24
Robbery 30 7 5 6
Auto theft 12 38 31 21
Theft from a motor vehicle 44 19 23 17

Robbery is down by four fifths since 2019. Theft from vehicles is down by more than half. Assault rose after 2019 in line with the city-wide pattern and has been easing back for two years. Auto theft climbed sharply to 2023 and has fallen since, again mirroring Toronto, where auto theft dropped from 12,418 in 2023 to 7,240 in 2025.

The dataset records two homicides in Long Branch across the five years 2021 to 2025 — one in 2021 and one in 2024 — and shootings in two of those five years: three in 2021 and one in 2024, with none recorded in 2022, 2023 or 2025.

Where things happen in Long Branch

The Toronto Police Major Crime Indicators dataset records a premises type for each occurrence. Across the 126 major-crime records with a 2025 occurrence date in Long Branch:

Premises type Count
Apartment 35
Outside 31
House 28
Commercial 25
Transit 4
Other 3

That spread is what you would expect from Long Branch’s actual shape: a mixed neighbourhood with older apartment stock along Lake Shore Boulevard West, a detached and semi-detached grid behind it, and a real retail main street generating commercial occurrences. Twenty-five commercial records in a neighbourhood this small is not a sign of danger — it is a sign that Long Branch has shops, which is one of the reasons people want to live here.

The things the data does not measure

  • The transit walk. Long Branch has more transit than any neighbourhood its size in Etobicoke — its own GO station on the Lakeshore West line and the 501 streetcar loop. The variable worth testing is the walk from the platform to your front door at 10pm, particularly the stretches around the rail corridor. Do it before you buy.
  • Lake Shore Boulevard West. It is the neighbourhood’s spine and a wide arterial. If you have young children, the distance from your house to a signalised crossing matters more day to day than anything on this page. The City’s Vision Zero dashboard maps road safety data.
  • Etobicoke Creek. The creek runs along the western edge of Long Branch through Marie Curtis Park, and development near it is regulated by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. If you are buying close to the creek, check the property against TRCA’s regulated-area mapping and ask about basement flooding history and backwater valves. That is a different kind of safety, and in this neighbourhood it is the one I get asked about more often.
  • Small numbers move. Six robberies is six robberies. If it is eleven next year the rate nearly doubles and nothing meaningful has changed about the place.

Looking at a specific Long Branch street?

Send me the address or the intersection. I will give you the honest read on that block — including creek proximity, severance activity next door, and how the walk from the GO station actually feels — and what it means for resale.

connect@jatindua.com · 437-987-1925 · Book a free consultation

Confidential. Reviewed personally and answered within 24 hours. I never share, sell or distribute your information.

Frequently asked questions

Is Long Branch Etobicoke safe?

On Toronto Police Service data for 2025, yes. Long Branch recorded 6 robberies, 24 break-and-enters, 21 auto thefts and 76 assaults among 13,151 residents, and every one of those rates was below the Toronto average. It ranked 103rd of Toronto’s 158 neighbourhoods on the five combined indicators, where 158 is the lowest rate in the city.

Is Long Branch safe at night?

The data supports it — six robberies across the whole neighbourhood in 2025, a rate of 46 per 100,000 against a Toronto average of 78. The stretch worth walking yourself before you commit is the route between Long Branch GO or the 501 loop and your front door, because lighting around the rail corridor varies block to block.

Is Long Branch or Alderwood safer?

They are close, and Long Branch edges it on 2025 rates. Long Branch ranked 103rd of 158 on the combined indicators and Alderwood 80th. Long Branch had the lower break-and-enter rate (183 versus 202), auto theft rate (160 versus 223) and robbery rate (46 versus 70); Alderwood had the lower assault rate, 508 against Long Branch’s 578. Both sit comfortably in the quieter half of the city and the difference between them is small enough not to drive a buying decision.

Is crime going up in Long Branch?

No, not on the multi-year data. Robberies fell from 30 in 2019 to 6 in 2025, thefts from vehicles from 44 to 17, and auto theft from a 2023 peak of 38 down to 21. Assaults rose after 2019 in line with the city-wide pattern and have eased for two consecutive years.

Have there been shootings in Long Branch?

Toronto Police’s neighbourhood dataset records three shootings in 2021 and one in 2024, with none in 2022, 2023 or 2025, and two homicides across the five years 2021 to 2025. Low is not zero, and I would rather say so than round it down.

Where can I check Long Branch crime statistics myself?

The Toronto Police Service Public Safety Data Portal at data.torontopolice.on.ca. Long Branch is one of the City of Toronto’s 158 named neighbourhoods, so you can filter both the Neighbourhood Crime Rates and Major Crime Indicators datasets directly to it, free.

Sources

Read next

Looking at Etobicoke more broadly? Start with my Etobicoke community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and where they sit relative to one another.

About the author — Jatin Dua, Etobicoke real estate agent

I am Jatin Dua, a Realtor with RE/MAX Quantum Realty, working from 799 The Queensway. South Etobicoke — Long Branch, Alderwood, New Toronto and Mimico — is the patch I cover most closely.

connect@jatindua.com · 437-987-1925

Please read this. Crime data is historical. It describes reported occurrences in a past period, not what will happen at a specific address, and it changes year to year. In a neighbourhood of 13,000 people the counts are small, so a handful of incidents can move a rate sharply without anything meaningful changing. Nothing here is a prediction, a guarantee or an assessment of any property. Do your own research, check the Toronto Police Service data directly, and visit at different times of day and different days of the week. As a licensed Realtor I present this information equally for every neighbourhood and will show you a home anywhere you choose to look; I do not steer buyers toward or away from any area, and I do not discuss the composition of a neighbourhood’s residents. Jatin Dua, Realtor, RE/MAX Quantum Realty. Not intended to solicit buyers or sellers currently under contract. E. & O.E.

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