Trump calls California ‘a mess’ because of crime. Do the numbers back that up?
During his 2024 campaign for his eventual second-term in office, President Donald Trump falsely claimed violent crime was higher under the Biden Administration. He referred to rampant crime as one of the reasons “California is a mess.”
Trump’s rhetoric against California has continued to escalate this summer as the president defends his administration’s decision to deploy masked immigration agents in tactical gear at workplaces, federal courthouses and other public areas in California to conduct immigration raids, including MacArthur Park in Los Angeles.
But Trump’s claims of a California ruined by crime are not supported by statistics law enforcement agencies submitted to the state’s Department of Justice.
California’s homicide rate last year was the second lowest since at least 1966, and the overall number of homicides decreased by nearly 12% since 2023, the Governor’s Office announced in a news release.
California’s overall violent crime rate dropped 6% statewide last year from the previous year. That number is moving in a downward direction, but it’s still 10.8% higher than it was in 2019.
In its released reports, the state Department of Justice said caution should be used when comparing 2024 homicides stats and other crime rates with previous years since not all law enforcement agencies were able to submit a full year of data for 2024.
“In the wake of a nationwide spike in crime during the pandemic, California made the choice to invest — not abandon — our communities,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a July 2 news release. “While Republicans in Congress push a bill that would gut law enforcement funding and the President focuses on arresting farmworkers, California is showing what real public safety looks like: serious investments, strong enforcement and real results.”
Newsom was boasting about the state’s 2024 crime statistics released by the California Department of Justice. The state’s crime rate is defined by the number of crimes reported per 100,000 people in the state.
The number of California homicides has been on the decline since 2021. There were 1,666 homicides reported statewide last year, a drop from 1,892 homicides reported in 2023, the 2,206 reported in 2022 and 2,361 in 2021.
Last year, guns continued to be the most common weapon used in California homicides with 69.9% of them involving a firearm. Of the homicides where the contributing circumstance was known, 41.7% were the result of an argument, 20.1% were gang-related, 13.5% were domestic violence related and 3% occurred during a rape, robbery or burglary.
Investigators believe an argument in November led to the shooting death of a man in south Sacramento and the arrest of Billy Polk. Sacramento County sheriff’s officials said Polk, who was later arrested on suspicion of homicide, was seen by witnesses running from the shooting scene in the 8100 block of Judette Avenue moments before he was taken into custody.
From 2022 through 2024, law enforcement officials in California confiscated 139,017 guns used in crimes with identifiable serial numbers, according to the DOJ’s crime guns report. This confiscated guns were entered in the Automated Firearm System, which included 46,996 crime guns last year alone.
There were 32,063 crime guns in California entered in AFS without any recorded serial number from 2022 through 2024, which included 9,249 unserialized crime guns confiscated in 2024.
In 2024, the statewide property crime rate dropped 8.4% in 2024, the aggravated assault rate dropped 6.5%, and the vehicle theft rate dropped 15.2%, according to the state DOJ. The rate of burglaries in California fell 9.1% last year, and the rate of robberies declined 6.3%.
In August, investigators arrested a 61-year-old Sacramento man suspected of carrying out a string of high-profile burglaries at businesses that month in and near downtown Sacramento. A police spokesperson called the suspect a “a prolific burglar.”
California has seen a downward trend in some categories in the past five years. Property crime, arson, burglary and robbery has decreased statewide since 2019. The burglary rate dropped 18.8% from 2019 to 2024, the largest decrease of all categories, according to the Governor’s Office.
Six police departments and two sheriff’s departments were not able to submit a full year of data due to either data collection system issues or available resources.
DOJ officials said law enforcement agencies across the state are in the process of transitioning to the new data collection system known as the California Incident-Based Reporting System, which will allow agencies to collect more in-depth information about specific incidents. More than 600 agencies have completed the transition and in the process of becoming certified by the DOJ.
The format of the information made available in this year’s reports remains consistent with previous years, DOJ officials said. The data collected was submitted in both the legacy and CIBRS formats.
“Transparency is key for understanding, preventing, and combating crime in our communities,” California Attorney General Bonta said in a news release. “While crime rates have declined over the past year, public safety in our communities remains priorities one, two and three. I encourage local partners and law enforcement to review this data and recommit to taking action.”
This story was originally published July 12, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
