It has been decades since San Francisco was this safe for residents, workers, and tourists.
Crime fell dramatically in 2025, with total violent incidents declining more than 25% from the previous year, according to the San Francisco Police Department.
The city recorded 27,321 crimes through Sunday, versus 36,633 during the same period in 2024. It’s one of the steepest year-over-year drops in recent history, with reductions across nearly every major category.
The decline in crime is even more striking because crime had plummeted last year as well.
At a December press conference announcing the renovation of the city’s real-time investigation center, Mayor Daniel Lurie said SFPD officers’ efforts were “showing real results catching and deterring criminals.”
“Violent crime is down to lows not seen since the 1950s,” he said. “Car break-ins are at 22-year lows, and citywide crime is down 30%.”
Motor vehicle thefts decreased 24% in 2025 to 3,011 incidents, while burglaries fell 12.5% to 3,673 cases. Larceny theft, which represents the largest volume of crimes, declined 21.8% to 16,492 incidents.
Among violent crimes, robberies saw the most dramatic decline, plummeting 44.2% to 3,011 incidents.
Assaults, however, bucked the trend, rising 28.6% to 2,046 incidents.
Mike Males, a senior research fellow at the San Francisco-based Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, said the declines were to be expected.
“The big mistake that we’ve made is to blame or credit any particular administration or crime strategy for transient crime,” Males said. “A lot of this is just structural in nature.”
Males argues that crime patterns follow a predictable trend: As the city grows wealthier and pushes out low-income residents, violent crimes like homicide decline. Meanwhile, organized theft rings target high-end vehicles, retailers, and wealthy homes.
“We’re going to continue to have cycles of high rates of property crime,” he said. “Because San Francisco is a rich city, we’re going to attract that kind of offense.”
Violent crime
Homicides have been on a downward trajectory in San Francisco for a decade, though there was an uptick during the pandemic. This year, the number of homicides fell 20% to 28, versus 35 in 2024. It’s the lowest number since 1960. For the sake of comparison, Oakland, which has half the population of San Francisco, had 59 (opens in new tab) homicides through November.
Shootings in San Francisco were down by 24% in 2025, to 77, versus 101 in 2024. There were 97 victims of those shootings, 19 of whom died. By comparison, Oakland had 238 (opens in new tab) shootings over the same period.
There was a run of shootings that opened the year in San Francisco, but gun violence continued its post-pandemic declines. Specific cases involving standoffs, including the January shooting of a South of Market store owner followed by police officers’ shooting of a suspect, and the March shooting by police of an Outer Sunset man who had threatened neighbors, caught public attention.
A fatal May shooting at a Fisherman’s Wharf intersection, a November shooting near the Great Highway in the Outer Richmond that injured four teens and an adult, and a shooting at a Portola District school campus in December were described by police as isolated incidents.
Case closed
The SFPD simultaneously reported improvements in clearance rates — the percentage of cases resolved through arrest or other means.
Robbery clearances rose to 30.3% from 23.2% in 2024, though that figure may reflect changes in reporting methodology. Motor vehicle theft clearances also rose to 9.2%. Assault clearances rose slightly to 41.4% of cases, while burglary clearances tripled to 17.2% of cases.
However, clearance rates for property crimes remain low. Larceny theft cases were cleared at just 8.7%, up slightly from 8.2% in 2024.
The number of reported crimes almost always diverges from the number of arrests police make and how many cases are eventually filed by the district attorney. This year was not different.
Auto burglaries show the disparity. Far more car break-ins were reported than arrests made or cases filed. That was also true for drug-related offenses, which saw a surge in reports but relatively flat rates of arrests and charges.
Loitering is another telling example. It’s a minor crime that police officers often cite when breaking up big crowds involved in drug dealing. But it results in relatively few cases brought by prosecutors.
The SFPD’s Ingleside station, which includes Bernal Heights, the Excelsior, and St. Francis Wood, had the most homicides and second most car thefts, but had among the fewest burglaries and larcenies. The Tenderloin station covers the smallest geographic area but has persistently high levels of crime. This year’s stats bear that out in categories including homicide, robbery, and assault.
