‘Come downtown. Don’t stay out ’til 2,’ said Sacramento mayor. Crime data shows a trend

After this week’s deadly mass shooting, Mayor Darrell Steinberg said, “I want to encourage our people to come downtown.” But he added, “Don’t stay out ’til 2 in the morning.”

Steinberg’s point is partly backed by data: Like a lot of places, downtown Sacramento sees certain types of crimes more often in the evening. But the peak is actually a little earlier in the the night.

The Sacramento Police Department publishes data showing when and where police take reports of every crime.

The Bee looked at the timing of three types of crime – reports of shots fired, aggravated assaults and weapons offenses – that increased in number during the pandemic.

The Bee focused on the downtown core, the area bordered by the Sacramento River and H, N and 16th streets. Separately, The Bee looked at reports of shots in midtown Sacramento, the area roughly between the American River, Highway 50, Capital City Freeway and 16th Street.

Shots fired downtown

Shots fired calls are rare during the day in downtown Sacramento. Between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., when tens of thousands of people inhabit downtown offices, there were only four shots fired incidents reported in 2020 and 2021.

Shots fired calls started to pick up around 8 p.m. Reports peaked between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m, when there were 20 calls in 2020 and 2021. All told, more than 80% of shots fired incidents downtown took place between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.

Police dispatchers log calls whenever someone reports that shots have been fired. Sometimes there are multiple calls within a few minutes of each other that likely refer to the same incident. For this story, The Bee isolated shots fired calls reported at least 45 minutes apart from one another.

Aggravated assault downtown

Felony assaults are on the rise throughout much of the city, and downtown is no exception.

Police officers took 113 reports of aggravated assaults in 2020 and 2021 in the downtown core, an increase of 32 assaults, or 40%, from 2018 and 2019.

Aggravated assaults are more spread throughout the day than shots fired calls, police data show. However, more take place at night. The busiest hour for felony assault was between midnight and 1 a.m.

Weapons offenses downtown

Sacramento police have increased the number of weapons they confiscate and weapons-related charges that they have filed since the start of the pandemic.

As of Thursday afternoon, police had arrested three people in connection with this month’s mass shooting – all of them face charges of illegally owning a weapon.

Like felony assaults, weapon offenses are reported throughout the day, but more commonly at night. The busiest times for weapons offenses downtown in 2020 and 2021 was between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.

The most common hour logged by police for weapon charges was between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m.

Shots fired in midtown

Just outside downtown is the larger midtown area, known for its hip, residential feel. Like midtown, the vast majority of shots fired calls logged by police come at night.

In particular, shots fired calls are disproportionately high from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m.

This story was originally published April 8, 2022 at 10:59 AM.