A new national survey shows some major California cities experiencing a drop in violent crime this year, though the change also shows in higher numbers in other locales.
The Major Cities Chiefs Association’s midyear Violent Crime Report compares preliminary data collected in the first six months of 2023 and 2024 for reported violent crimes — homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — in America’s largest cities. Among the 69 cities in the U.S. who participated in the survey, violent crime decreased in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.
The national survey found decreases across all four categories tracked in several major California cities: Oakland, Sacramento and San Francisco. In other cities, such as San Jose, violent crime rose year-over-year in some categories but fell in others.
In Oakland, the number of reported homicides went from 52 in 2023 to 47 this year, the lowest level since the COVID pandemic and resulting quarantines in 2020. That marks a decrease of nearly 10 percent.
Oakland’s homicide rate per 100k people is still far higher than the national rate — 10.77 in the city compared to 0.93 nationally. San Jose and San Francisco were also slightly above the national rate, with homicide rates of 1.55 and 2.10 respectively.
In San Jose, where reported data did not include numbers from June, cases of homicide and aggravated assault increased between last year and this year. The number of homicides slightly increased from 13 last year to 15 this year, according to the survey. Cases of aggravated assault also increased slightly, from 1,551 in 2023 to 1,596 in 2024, an increase of just over two percent.
A decrease in violent crime was also seen in San Francisco, where 17 homicides were reported, cutting the number of killings in the first half of 2023 by more than 30 percent in the city of more than 800,000 residents. The city also reported about 200 fewer robberies between this year and last year.
Cases of robbery in Oakland decreased from around 1,500 in 2023 to around 1,350 in 2024, according to the survey, while the number of aggravated assaults dropped from about 1,600 to 1,500. The most significant change was the robbery rate, decreasing by close to 15 percent.
In March, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao promoted highlighted city leaders’ efforts to combat crime, especially in the area around Hegenberger Road, the major boulevard to the city’s airport and the location of numerous high-profile business closures due to blight and crime. Reports of burglaries and gunfire decreased year over year, Oakland police said at the time, but the number of robberies had increased by almost a third.
The number of rapes reported in San Jose was down by nearly 55 percent, from 344 to 155.
San Jose isn’t the only city seeing a slight rise in some categories of violent crime. Fresno reported more cases of rape and aggravated assault in 2024 compared to 2023.
Nationwide, the number of homicides was down 17.42 percent, Rapes were down 9.73 percent, robberies were down 6.09 percent and aggravated assault was down 5.39 percent.
Sacramento also saw decreases in violent crime. Most notably, reports of aggravated assault in Sacramento decreased from 1,400 in 2023 to 1,200 this year in the same amount of time.
Long Beach saw violent crime increase mostly, as there were more cases of homicide, rape and robbery reported in the city. Both the city and county of Los Angeles saw rises in the number of reported robberies.
