In San Diego, the violent crime rate is the lowest in 47 years, according to a report released Tuesday by city leaders.
The overall crime rate decreased by 2.3 percent in 2016 and violent crime was down by 4.5 percent.
"Our city is safe because of the incredible partnership forged between our community and police department," San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer said.
Faulconer praised community outreach and communication as one of the reasons for the decline.
Property crimes, burglary and theft also decreased.
San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman credited community policing--a way of connecting law enforcement with neighborhoods--for the decrease in the overall crime rate.
"We still go door to door, we still get on our bicycles and get out of our car but we use social media, we put out a community policing report...so many more ways we connect with our community that didn't exist five, 10, 20 years ago," Zimmerman said.
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Bishop George McKinney, of St. Stephen's Church in San Diego, said he believes the numbers indicate there is communication between the community and law enforcement but added that there are still issues to work on.
"There are problems but we have to work on them together, we have to communicate," he said.
The report also showed that although violent crimes was down, others did increase, including murder, rape and robbery.
Homicides increased by 32.4 percent from 2015 to 2016, rape by 1.1 percent and robbery by 0.7 percent. Vehicle theft increased by 14.6 percent.
"Although homicide was up for the third year in a row, San Diego has the lowest homicide per capita of any of the major cities--at least the ten largest cities," Zimmerman said.
She added that although there were 49 murder cases in 2016, compared to the 37 in 2015, four of the homicides were released to the homeless killing spree.
According to the report, after the deployment of body-worn cameras by San Diego police, there has been a "36 percent decrease in citizen complaints and allegations since 2013."
You can read the report on body-worn cameras here.
To see the full overall crime report, click here.
