SDPD: San Diego crime rates drop for second year in a row

SAN DIEGO (FOX5/KUSI) — The City of San Diego has experienced an overall crime decrease of 2.7%, according to the 2023 annual crime statistics report.

“San Diego remains one of the safest large cities in America year after year despite continued staffing shortages,” said San Diego Police Chief, David Nisleit.

Categories of assault, homicide and kidnapping had a very minor decrease overall. However, murders decreased by 13.5%, sexual assaults decreased by 16.2% and crimes against property were down 5.7%

Non-fatal shootings and crimes committed by gang members both dropped by 12% and the number of documented gang members decreased by 20%.

Hate crimes on rise in San Diego as overall crime rates drop: SDPD

San Diego Police Chief, David Nisleit, attributes the overall decrease in crime partially to proactive police work to prevent crimes from occurring and the investigative tools they use to hold criminals accountable.

“Large scale operations, not just this year but the years before, in my opinion are responsible for seeing a reduction in non-fatal shootings amongst gang members, a reduction of gang crime, a reduction of the gang population.”

Mayor Todd Gloria partially attributes the overall decrease in crime to increased funding.
“When we said that we were going to fund our public safety departments this is the net result of that,” said Mayor Todd Gloria.

But not all categories saw a decrease. Hate crime reports went up from 38 cases in 2022 to 66 cases in 2023 with race accounting for 38% and religious bias accounting for 27% of hate crimes.

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A new category of crimes against society, covering alcohol and drug related crimes, weapon offenses, prostitution and gambling, saw an overall increase of 4.6%.

The San Diego Police Department switched to using the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) to report crime statistics this year.

“2022 is the first year that we actually had NIBRS crime statistics that were actually certified by the state, so the percent changes you’re seeing they are solely NIBRS for 2022/2023,” said Jordan Fankhauser, IT and Crime Analysis San Diego Police Department.

NIBRS breaks crimes into more categories allowing police to better understand the incidents.
“I think NIBRS is going to allow us as a police department and commanding officers to really drill down more on crime and make sure we’re putting our personnel in the right places at the right times,” said Chief Nisleit.

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The San Diego Police Department encourages the community to work with the Police Department and report suspicious activity.

“This Chief and this Mayor are never satisfied. One crime is too many and we’ll continue to do whatever it takes to keep San Diego safe,” said Mayor Todd Gloria.

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