SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Newly released statistics show California's violent crime rate and property crime rate are up.
But if you didn't hear about the report, it might have to do with the timing of its release.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta released the annual Crime in California Report on the afternoon of Friday, June 30, ahead of what, for many people, would be a four-day weekend.
As opinion columnist Dan Walters for the nonprofit and non-partisan political and policy news outlet CalMatters put it, “Political officeholders at all levels and of all ideological stripes habitually pursue a time-dishonored practice when releasing data. If...The data have a negative cast, they will be released quietly, often late on a Friday afternoon, to minimize media coverage."
CalMatters dove into some important numbers.
The report shows California's violent crime rate increased 6.1% since 2021. The property crime rate was up 6.2%. The homicide rate dipped, decreasing 5%. But the robberies rate jumped by 10.2%.
Bonta said in a statement accompanying the release of the report, "While crime rates remain significantly below their historical highs, property and violent crimes continue to have devastating consequences for communities across the state, and gun violence remains a major threat to public safety."
Also included in the annual California Criminal Justice Statistical Reports for the first time this year: a report on crime guns. Those are defined as firearms that have been illegally possessed, used in a crime or suspected to have been used in a crime.
It looked at crime guns seized over the course of 13 years—from 2010 through 2022. Altogether, some 600,000 thousand crime guns were recovered by law enforcement agencies, with instances in all 58 of California's counties. Of the crime guns that could be traced back to dealers, half of them – about 38,000 - came from just 82 dealers.
Read the Crime in California Report HERE.
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