For the second year in a row, the State of California has experienced an increase in violent crime. But our state is not alone. The rest of the country is seeing an increase, as well.
California Stats
FBI.gov reports that there were 174,796 violent crimes last year in California. That is an increase of 4.9 percent from the 166,588 offenses in 2015. Last year’s total is 15.4 percent higher than in 2014.
You can also look at that number from a population perspective. With a total statewide population of 39,250,017, the violent crime rate per 100,000 inhabitants was 445.3.
How does that compare with violent crime across the rest of the country? California’s stats are higher than the national trends.
In 2016, there were 1,248,185 incidents in the U.S., which was a 4.1 percent increase over 2015. Nationwide, there were 386.3 offenses for every 100,000 inhabitants. As is the case in California, the country is on an upward swing in violent events. The number dipped in 2014 to just over 1.15 million but has increased in the last two years.
To put California’s violent crimes in perspective, they were just 14% of the total U.S. figure.
Violent Crime in Los Angeles
As expected, the major metropolitan areas in the state experienced more violence. In total, those areas accounted for 170,862 episodes or 97.75 percent of the statewide total.
The City of Los Angeles faced 28,817 violent offenses alone. Outside of the city limits, but still in the County of Los Angeles, there were 6,124 violent occurrences. Those areas inside the county that experienced the highest amount of increases in offenses were:
- CSU Northbridge, up by 200 incidents,
- Westlake Village, up by 166 incidents;
- Sierra Madre, up by 127 incidents
- La Habra Heights, up by 100 incidents.
The areas that saw the largest decreases were:
- Bradbury, down by 100;
- Rolling Hills, down by 100.
Use of Force Stats
A new stat was counted in 2016, that of the use if force by police officers. Across the state there were 782 reported events. Of those, 328 involved the use of a firearm with 75 percent of those hitting their target.
Los Angeles County had 212 incidents. That is 27 percent of the statewide total.
The Bottom Line
With violent crime figures on the rise in our city, county and state, it only makes sense to take steps to secure your business, your employees and your loved ones. Call American Security Force today at 877-722-8585 to learn how we can bring safety and security to those things you care about most.
