San Jose once called itself the safest big-city in America. Now, a new report shows it’s struggling to keep the local title.
According to the latest figures, violent crime in San Jose increased by 6 percent in 2018. That number is coupled with a projected 17 percent increase in burglaries.
This is all while the Police Chief Eddie Garcia has said staffing remains a big part of the problem.
The San Jose Police Department is still 300 officers short of where it wants to be, and that’s still less than the national average per capita.
The silver lining is that homicides in the city did drop, from 32 to 27 last year.
On the other hand, Oakland is trending in the opposite direction as violent crimes are down: robberies by 1 percent, rapes by 12 percent, residential burglaries by 20 percent and car burglaries by 25 percent. Even homicides dropped from 71 to 68 last year.
Oakland city leaders will hold a news conference Thursday to unveil the numbers.
Local
San Francisco figures haven’t been revealed but preliminary figures show violent crime is also down in the city.
