San Diego saw an increase in violent crime, particularly homicides and aggravated assaults, last year while all other crimes decreased, accounting for an 8.4% reduction in overall crime, according to data released by the San Diego Police Department on Monday.
SDPD Chief David Nisleit said there was a decrease from 2019 to 2020 in five of the seven categories used to track crime trends in major cities across the United States.
The seven categories include four violent crime categories -- homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, and three property crimes -- burglary, theft and vehicle theft.
The data was presented to the San Diego City Council on Tuesday.
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There were 55 killings in 2020 compared to 50 the year before, accounting for a 10% increase in homicides. SDPD said of the killings, 10 were associated with gang activity and 5 were family or domestic violence-related.
Aggravated assault rose 9.1% in the same time period. Rape was down 13.5%, or by 76 cases, and robbery was down 10.3%. Property crimes were down a combined 10.4%.
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SDPD also noted there were four less hate crimes reported this year, though crimes were predominately based on ethnicity this year as opposed to predominately based on sexual orientation the year prior. Religious-based hate-crimes also decreased from 9 last year to one this year, SDPD said.
Overall crime in San Diego was down 8.4%, which Nisleit said was comparable to rates seen in the 1970s. Gang-related crime was down 23%.
"The overall reduction in crime represents the continued work of our police officers every day and on every shift to prevent and reduce crime in our city," Nisleit said. "In 2021, SDPD will continue to build trust with our communities to stop crime before it starts and keep San Diego one of the safest big cities in the country."
According to city officials, 2020 crime trends, which are reported to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation as part of a crime reporting program across U.S. cities, with preliminary reports showing increases in homicides and aggravated assaults across the board.
