Short answer: yes, and the data backs that up better than you'd expect from a quick Google search that mixes up "Siesta Key" with "Sarasota" and treats them as the same place.
Two different things get conflated here
Siesta Key itself is a small residential barrier island, a few thousand year-round residents, mostly retirees and families, sitting right next to the beach. Crime data specific to Siesta Key as its own community actually grades out well — safer than the large majority of US cities its analytics get compared against, with a genuinely low rate of violent crime.
Sarasota the city, on the other hand, is bigger and more mixed, and its overall crime numbers get pulled around by specific neighborhoods that have nothing to do with the beach or the tourist areas. Some of the "Sarasota has high crime" headlines you'll find online are really about downtown neighborhoods well away from where any visitor spends their day.
What actually happens to tourists here
It's overwhelmingly property crime, not violent crime — car break-ins, theft of valuables left visible in a parked car, that kind of thing. Basic precautions cover almost all of it: don't leave bags, phones, or anything visible in your car, especially at beach parking lots where a rental car full of luggage is an obvious target.
What that means for someone just visiting the beach
Sarasota, like any city, has a few areas with a rougher reputation than others — but none of them are anywhere near Siesta Key, the Village, or the route you'd take getting to the beach. There's no realistic scenario where a visitor centered around the beach ends up passing through one of those areas by accident.
Bottom line
Common sense precautions — don't leave valuables visible in the car, stay aware at night like you would anywhere — cover the realistic risk here. The island itself has a strong police and sheriff presence given how much tourism it depends on, and the actual data for Siesta Key specifically supports that it's one of the safer beach destinations in the state.
Once safety's off your list of concerns, our best times to visit guide is the natural next thing to plan around.
Keep planning