Why is This Important?

Crime impacts a community's social and economic wellbeing. High rates of crime discourage neighborhood vitality and economic development. Crime may also impact a local government's ability to deliver essential public services by diverting resources to increased police enforcement. While violent crimes such as homicide grab the most headlines, lesser crimes such as theft and vandalism weaken the morale and civic engagement of residents. Juvenile crime rates are particularly important indicators as they are strongly correlated with continued criminal activity in adult years.

What is a Sustainable State?

A sustainable state is one where crime rates are low and communities have safe schools and neighborhoods.

How Are We Doing?

Crime rates

• The rate of violent crime in San Mateo County was stable in 2008, with 291.9 violent crimes committed per 100,000 residents. Violent crime increased nearly 30 percent from 1999 through 2005 (counter to statewide trends) and has since decreased by almost 14 percent. The rate of violent crime in San Mateo County remains far below the statewide rate of 485.6 violent crimes per 100,000 residents.
• The incidence of property-related crimes (primarily burglary and theft) increased about 11 percent in 2008 from 1,146.6 to 1,274.8 per 100,000 residents. There were increases in the burglaries (12 percent), motor vehicle thefts (9 percent), and larceny (15 percent). It is unknown at this time whether this was a one year anomaly or part of a larger trend.

Juvenile crime

• Juvenile felony arrests were essentially unchanged from 2007, with 793 felony arrests in 2008, 9 less than 2007. Juvenile felony arrests have declined over 40 percent since their 1996 peak of 1,349 arrests.

• Arrests for misdemeanors have shown a similar decline, down from 2,937 in 1996 to 1,612 in 2008 (down about 45 percent).

Gang violence

The rate of gang-related homicides is one metric for measuring progress in combating gang violence. (The state Criminal Justice Statistics Center does not collect data on gang-related activity for other types of crimes). In each of 2004 and 2005, gang-related homicides peaked at 7 primarily attributable to a gang-activity in East Palo Alto; since that time, there has been one gang-related homicide in each of the past 3 years.