Today the Sacramento Police Department is releasing violent crime statistics for the year 2020.  The last year saw an unprecedented strain on police resources; officers often were pulled from policing communities to staff major demonstrations around our Capitol. These reassignments led to increases in murders, gun violence, and gang activity around Sacramento.

The city of Sacramento saw 43 homicides in 2020, up from 34 in 2019, and the most since 2015. Eight of those homicides were confirmed to be gang-related, and additionally, four involved juvenile victims. One victim was a nine-year-old girl shot and killed by a stray bullet in a drive-by shooting. Sacramento had not had a juvenile homicide since 2018.

There were 192 firearm-related assaults in 2020, a nearly 30% increase from the year before. These assaults occurred throughout Sacramento, but mostly in communities where calls for police service are normally high. Demonstrations occurring in downtown Sacramento pulled officers away from these communities, resulting in fewer officers available to proactively patrol, respond to calls for service, or investigate crimes in their districts.

Other evidence of increased violence was the surge in total ShotSpotter activations by nearly 14%. ShotSpotter is a system that can detect possible gunfire and automatically alert the Sacramento Police Department, who then can respond quickly to the scene. A ShotSpotter activation is sometimes the only way the Sacramento Police Department is notified of a shooting.

Patrol officers as well as specialty units like Problem-Oriented Policing and Gang Enforcement work hard to prevent crimes like these from occurring.  Despite a reduction in hours at their normal assignments due to the unrest around the city, officers continued to seize illegally possessed firearms on a nearly daily basis.  In 2019, officers seized a total of 974 illegally possessed firearms. In 2020, this number increased to 1,235.  Many of these firearm arrests include firearms that were possessed by felons and gang members.

Officers have continued their proactive work in 2021, making over 70 arrests and seizing over 90 illegally possessed firearms in the month of January alone. The Sacramento Police Department is dedicated to the ensuring the safety of everyone in our city. Every day, our officers show up and do their jobs, whether it’s patrolling communities, enabling the expression of first amendment rights, or investigating and solving crimes.

The link below will take you to a video that also includes this information:

https://youtu.be/lOY6EgiTlVE

To view the 2020 Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) statistics for the Sacramento Police Department please follow the link below:

https://www.cityofsacramento.org/Police/Crime