Around what time does the first crimes start happening?

Question

I love to play Simcity every so often, but I always get frustrated because I have the same problem each time. I would be upgrading my city when this happens:

(sigh).........

The crime explosion happens and I end up losing my city and the progress I have made to my city.

So I want to know if there is any guidance to what point I should already have a police station available. Ex: certain population, time. Any guidance would help.

The picture isn't mine, that is an extreme situation

Answer 1

Crimes happen for these reasons:

• uneducated sims
• unemployment
• imigrating from other regions
• randomly

If there aren't other cities in your region, the first criminals would appear when your city get enough population to get a city hall (or somewhat close). Don't bother building a police station before the first crime commited in your city, because it would be a waste of money. Instead of building a big station, build 2-3 spread through the entire city, so the police cars can get to the crime scene to arrest the criminals.