Reported crime in San Jose fell in 2025

Reported crime figures in San Jose continued to decline in 2025, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report. Last year’s drop in violent crimes has accelerated a downward trend that began in 2024 after such crimes peaked the previous year.

Violent crime last year fell 15% compared to 2024, while property crime dropped 7%, the figures show. These declines held across nearly all major crime categories, including aggravated assault, rape, robbery, theft, burglary and motor vehicle theft.

“San Jose remains the safest big city in the country,” Mayor Matt Mahan told San José Spotlight. “These (crime reductions) reflect our investments in smart, tech-enabled policing and the creation of our Neighborhood Quality of Life unit to address the issues residents experience every day.”

Mahan is referring to a new police unit he proposed last spring tasked with policing large homeless encampments. It’s part of his broader effort to stiffen penalties for homeless people who refuse offers of shelter.

The 4,963 violent crimes reported in San Jose last year makes 2025 the second year in a row to see declines, after such crimes peaked in 2023 at 6,046. That’s the highest number of violent crimes the city has seen since the crime surge of the mid-90s. Prior to 2024, violent crime had been gradually increasing in San Jose for over a decade, and despite the recent improvements, the 2025 figure still remains well above the historic average for the past 20 years.

Long-term property crime trends have been more stable in San Jose over the past decade. However, the 2025 property crime total for the city, 23,222, marks the lowest figure it has seen over that time period except for 2021, when COVID lockdown orders significantly disrupted typical crime patterns.

Some crime categories dropped more than others. Over the past 12 months, the San Jose Police Department recorded 26 homicides, the same as 2024. That means the past two years have tied for the lowest homicide level in the city in at least 10 years.

Among violent crimes, rape saw the most dramatic drop in 2025 with a 27% reduction. Incidence of the crime had been trending upward for more than a decade. Meanwhile, motor vehicle thefts saw a 17% decline, continuing years of improvements after such crimes peaked in 2017.

Police officials also credit the drop in crime to new tools, including SJPD’s expanded use of automated license plate recognition and the addition of new software systems to the city’s Real-Time Intelligence Center. The facility allows technical experts to review crime scene data in real-time.

“What we are seeing is not accidental, and it’s not luck,” a police department spokesperson told San José Spotlight.

San Jose is facing a lawsuit over its use of license plate readers from a coalition of local advocacy and civil rights groups. They allege the city’s network of surveillance cameras allows police to track the movements of motorists without a warrant.

San Jose’s declining crime figures fall in line with national crime trends that have seen major cities throughout the country notch significant improvements in recent years. In fact, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Dallas, Texas all saw their crime figures decline by even larger percentages than San Jose, according to an analysis conducted by the San Francisco Chronicle.

San Jose won plaudits last year for its handling of public safety issues.

A report by financial tech company SmartAsset named it the safest major U.S. city in the country, after comparing various safety metrics such as violent crime and the rate of traffic fatalities.

Still, a number of challenges remain. SJPD faces a longstanding staffing shortage, made even more difficult to resolve by the city’s growing budget deficit. And high-profile crimes continue to grab headlines in the city, such as the Black Friday shooting at Valley Fair mall that left three injured.

Greg Woods, a criminology professor at San Jose State University, said the figures could suggest that SJPD’s focus on community outreach could be paying dividends by winning officers more trust among residents.

“Crime is top of mind in many communities, and maybe because we are focusing and spending so much attention on it, and delivering in a way that connects community with law enforcement, we’re able to maintain that responsibility to promote public safety,” he told San José Spotlight.

However, Silicon Valley De-Bug Executive Director Raj Jayadev, a longtime critic of SJPD, voiced skepticism, arguing the declining figures should not be taken as a sign that the city’s approach is working. Instead, he contends the crime drop should upend the tough on crime narrative advanced by some city leaders.

“If crimes go up, the mayor and police chief are going to use that to increase the police budget,” he told San José Spotlight. “If crime is going down, they are going to use it to justify the spending they are already doing.”

Contact Keith Menconi at [email protected] or @KeithMenconi on X.