Regardless of its status as a relatively high-crime area, visitors are undeterred. They head for this desert playground for its year-round warm weather and multitude of activities.

But if you’re headed here, be sure to carry your personals close, or leave them at home. Keep any personal or valuable items in the trunk of your car and be careful wherever you are. The statistics don’t paint a pretty picture.

In every category tracked by the FBI, Palm Springs has a crime rate higher than the national average -- in some cases, significantly higher. There are a few categories that are probably most relevant to the visitor, such as robbery and petty theft. Those, too, are high.

In 2004, there were 107 robberies in Palm Springs. Though there are only 43,000 residents here, that averages out to about 233 robberies per 100,000 people (the FBI figures statistics based on the per 100,000 rating to keep things equivalent). The national average for robberies is 136 per 100,000.

The rate of auto thefts in Palm Springs is also very high, in fact in 2004, the rate of auto thefts was three times that of the national average, at 1300 per 100,000 people.

There’s a good chance most visitors need not worry about the high crime rate in Palm Springs. Although tourists are often targets, most tourists stay relatively safe even in high-crime areas if they stay on well-lighted streets, travel with others when possible and take care of their belongings.