Gun-related homicides in San Diego fell last year
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The rate of gun-related homicides in San Diego dropped in 2022, reversing a four-year trend of increases in the city.
Driving the news: There were 2.8 gun-related homicides per 100,000 residents in San Diego last year, according to a new report released by the left-leaning Center for American Progress Action Fund provided exclusively to Axios.
- That's down from 2.9 per 100,000 a year earlier, but up from 2 per 100,000 residents in 2015.
Why it matters: The drop in gun-related crimes last year followed prominent discussion of increasing crime in San Diego during the pandemic years. But the new data underscores the reality that San Diego remained one of the country's safest big cities despite those increases.
The big picture: The report framed its findings in partisan terms, comparing gun-related homicide rates in blue-state cities and red-state cities from 2015 through 2022 as part of an argument about the relationship between progressive policies and crime.
- San Diego had a Republican mayor, and a Democratic City Council, under the state's Democratic governor, for six of those seven years. Its rate came in way below either blue-state cities (7.2 gun-related homicides per 100,000 residents) or red-state cities (11.1 per 100,000).
- The city's 2.8 gun-related homicides per 100,000 residents rate is dwarfed by cities like New Orleans (65.3 per 100,000); Cleveland (40.2 per 100,000); Atlanta (38.9 per 100,000); and Richmond (36.6 per 100,000).
Zoom out: In the spring, SDPD reported that all violent crime fell 7.5% last year, bringing the city's rate of all violent crimes to 4.2 per 100,000 residents.