California and most Bay Space cities noticed crime fall from 2023 to 2024, in keeping with the state’s annual crime report.
The report reveals California’s violent crime charge fell 6% from 2023 to 2024, whereas the property crime charge was down 8.4%.
“While crime rates have declined over the past year, public safety in our communities remains priorities one, two, and three,” California Legal professional Normal Rob Bonta stated whereas asserting the discharge of the Division of Justice crime report July 1.
In keeping with state developments, many of the Bay Space’s greatest cities noticed a lower in violent crime final yr from the yr earlier than, however basically, charges are greater now than 10 years in the past. The violent crime class contains homicides, rapes, aggravated assaults and robberies.
The 2024 lower is the primary yr of decline for the Golden State after 4 steady years of will increase.
However zooming in on the Bay Space, the developments in two main cities are much less clear.
Issues with information and modifications in federal reporting necessities triggered points with the 2023 information reported to the state by Oakland and San Jose, making analyses primarily based on the state’s information unreliable for these cities over the previous two years. Further information studies from police departments in these cities gives extra correct trending.
Statewide, the speed of violent crimes per 100,000 folks final yr was akin to the mid-2000s, although nonetheless down considerably from 1992, when practically twice as many violent crimes had been reported.
Surges in robberies and aggravated assaults have pushed latest will increase in violent crime general, however homicides and rapes each dropped in 2023. Officers reported 1,666 homicides within the state final yr, down practically 12% from the earlier yr, and the fewest homicides reported in any yr since 1971.
From the Nineteen Nineties by means of the mid-2010s violent crime was on the decline, however throughout the pandemic, crime charges began to rise once more, as did sure forms of property crimes.
Property crimes have been on a common downward development over the previous 15 years. However relying on the town, the image seems fairly completely different, and a few locations noticed notable pandemic spikes.
In San Francisco, the variety of property crimes reported in 2024 was the bottom it’s been in 15 years, regardless of rising annually from 2020 by means of 2023.
The California DOJ’s report notes a handful of points with the information reported to them from a number of legislation enforcement businesses within the state, together with these in Oakland and San Jose. The info Oakland submitted to the DOJ in 2023 confirmed an enormous soar in violent crimes, with the annual variety of violent crimes greater than doubling from the yr earlier than.
The police division, metropolis officers, and the DOJ acknowledge that information is misguided, nevertheless it stays within the state’s information recordsdata with a footnote. The DOJ report directs readers to the Oakland Police Division’s personal information studies for extra correct 2023 information and readability. These studies present crime was up in 2023 after which down in 2024, however that each are greater than any yr since a minimum of 2010.
Based on information from Oakland, there additionally was a drop in property crimes from 2023 to 2024, however extra property crimes had been reported in Oakland in each 2023 and 2024 than any yr from 2010 by means of 2022.
The Oakland Police Division didn’t reply to a request for remark. However Huy Nguyen, president of Oakland Police Officers’ Affiliation, credit the drop final yr to the work of the OPD officers and the extra help from state and federal businesses, together with the California Freeway Patrol.
“Obviously, in 2023 you saw a major increase in crime,” Nguyen stated. “We can see that the number is trending down.”
Knowledge from San Jose in 2023 was incomplete, lacking totals from November and December of that yr. The town was amongst 117 of the 738 businesses that had a minimum of a month of information lacking in 2023 as California businesses switched to new crime information reporting requirements required by the U.S. Division of Justice as a part of an effort to develop extra complete statistics.
“There were an unusually large number of law enforcement agencies in California in 2023 that did not report data for every single month,” stated Magnus Lofstrom, coverage director of legal justice and a senior fellow on the Public Coverage Institute of California, which annually examines crime statistics from the state DOJ and different information sources.
Given these information points, how does San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan decide the town’s progress in addressing crime?
Mahan factors to an evaluation from the San Jose Police Division utilizing the brand new information requirements, which point out violent crime was down about 6% when evaluating Could by means of December of 2023 to the identical interval in 2024, much like the statewide drop in violent crimes the DOJ reported for final yr.
“We’re seeing positive trends overall,” Mahan stated.
Whereas the variety of violent crimes slowly elevated during the last decade in San Jose, the town’s violent crime charge per 100,000 residents nonetheless is way decrease than San Francisco’s, and a fraction of Oakland’s violent crime charge.
“San Jose is a very safe city, one of the safest big cities in the country,” Mahan stated, acknowledging that the information is simply a part of the equation. “Our North Star metric is public perceptions of safety, so crime rates feed into that, but you can’t just focus on a crime rate and ignore how people feel.”
Initially Printed: July 31, 2025 at 2:32 PM PDT
