The California Department of Justice recently published its annual report on crime in California, which includes breakdowns by types of crime and jurisdiction.
Statewide, the numbers are mixed. From 2022 to 2023, the number of reported violent crimes rose from 193,019 to 199,838, while the number of reported property crimes slightly declined from 902,977 to 888,840.
In Los Angeles County, the reported number of both violent crimes and property crimes increased in that time period. Violent crime reports rose from 61,016 to 61,193, while property crime reports rose from 244,083 to 256,613.
Given that this is an election year and controversial Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón is up for re-election, this increase is no doubt inconvenient.
Gascón is a criminal justice reformer who believes the criminal justice system has been overly punitive in the past. Accordingly, he has sought to run the DA’s office with an approach that critics have long argued is “soft-on-crime.”
His challenger, Nathan Hochman, has understandably seized upon the latest crime figures.
“This is evidence that the reality we are experiencing every day in L.A. County is not some illusion, that the escalating criminal activity we’ve been seeing, hearing and feeling is supported by the numbers,” he said in a statement. “We are all less safe with George Gascon as D.A.”
There is little doubt that Hochman is right so far as the perception that many Angelenos and Californians have that crime is on the rise. The extent to which Gascón is responsible is a matter of debate.
Gascón was elected at the end of 2020. Since 2020, it’s true that both violent and property crime reports are up in Los Angeles County. But both are also up in Riverside County, which has both a tough-on-crime DA and a tough-on-crime sheriff. While property crimes are down in Orange County, violent crimes have spiked too despite having a tough-on-crime DA.
State policies, socioeconomic trends, local policing practices and many other factors are at play in crime trends. Still, at the end of the day, Hochman likely has the upper hand, as far as public perception goes, heading into the election.
