Oakland’s Violent Crime Dropped Significantly in 2025, Police Data Shows. What Happened?

Violent crime in Oakland dropped significantly in 2025, city leaders said Wednesday, attributing the decrease to local violence prevention programs, police surveillance technology and frequent interagency coordination.

Last year, Oakland police reported 67 homicides, the lowest annual total in decades and a 22% drop from 2024.

“Of course, that’s 67 too many,” Lee said, announcing the statistics. “Behind that number, though, lives are saved, families who didn’t get the worst phone call of their life, young people who are still with us. And, yes, we’re working to find alternatives for our young people.”

Aggravated assaults were also down 10%, robberies with firearms dropped by half and motor vehicle thefts dropped by nearly 40%.

While city officials touted the numbers as the culmination of their efforts, the change also reflects a national trend in declining violent crime as seen in cities near and far, including San Francisco, San Jose, Chicago and New York City.

Oakland’s Violence Prevention Chief Holly Joshi said her office played a key role in addressing public safety concerns by treating gun violence as a public health issue.

”We believe that most people caught in cycles of violence want a way out, and with the right supports and opportunities, can reinvent themselves,” Joshi said. “With that understanding in mind, we work to identify and engage the individuals most likely to draw or drive gun violence.”

That department includes so-called violence interrupters who Joshi said mediate conflicts before they become violent and work to prevent retaliation, as well as life coaches who work as case managers for people who are identified as being likely to engage in local conflicts and violence.

“The experts in the field estimate that in Oakland at any given time, there’s between 240 and 350 people that are most at risk of being involved in gun violence,” Joshi said. “So, the strategy is specifically meant to identify and then intervene in the lives of those specific people.”

Interim Police Chief James Beere cited one success story last year during a conflict between two groups that he said were both involved in illegal drugs and gambling.

After a series of shootings throughout Oakland, Beere said officials arranged a meeting between the incarcerated leaders of both groups.

“We sat them down so they could see each other face to face, and we told them the truth,” Beere said. “We let them know that there’s going to be resources sent out, violence interrupters, as well as other resources for people that were in their organization. Should they accept those? Great. If not, they were gonna be held accountable, and those that were committing the acts of violence were going to be held accountable.”

Beere said a decline in shootings followed and that he believes homicides were prevented because of that meeting. Citing ongoing investigations, he declined to share more specifics.

Beere added that police also benefited from the increased use of certain surveillance technologies, such as drones, automatic license plate readers and the ShotSpotter system, which uses AI to detect gunshots and alert authorities.

“We’re utilizing the technology to report crimes that in the past have not been reported, such as ShotSpotter. We’re utilizing the automated license plate reader to proactively investigate robberies, to include assaults, as well as burglaries,” Beere said.

The department deployed drones more than 150 times in 2025, Beere said — generally in disaster management in dangerous situations like armed and barricaded suspects, or sideshows.

Beere said newer technologies also helped the department seize over 291 vehicles involved in sideshows. Only 96 were taken at sideshow sites, while the majority were tracked down through surveillance technology.

These technologies are not without controversy, however. Privacy advocates have long criticized license plate readers’ and drones’ potential for abuse, and some have raised concerns that local license plate data is fed into federal databases that can ultimately aid in immigration enforcement.

Looking at the year ahead, Oakland leaders vowed to keep working to bring local crime rates down even further.

“Numbers alone are not the finish line. For families who have lost loved ones, statistics offer no comfort,” Lee said. “Our focus remains on what comes next, continuing to build on what works, really pushing forward with urgency and making Oakland again the safest city in America.”