Gov. Gavin Newsom used his final State of the State address to underscore California’s declining crime figures—stats that he said refute the president’s claims about widespread lawlessness.
To put some of the numbers cited by the governor on Thursday in viewpoint:
The last time homicides were this low in Oakland, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was visiting Joan Baez at Santa Rita Jail to commend her on her recent arrest in protest of the Vietnam draft.
Killings haven’t been so rare in San Francisco as superstar Marilyn Monroe wed baseball legend Joe DiMaggio at City Hall.
And violent deaths in the city of Los Angeles fell to rates not seen since the Beatles played Dodgers Stadium, their penultimate public show.
“We have seen double-digit decreases in crime overall in the state of California,” Newsom said. “We’ve got more work to do, but to those with that California derangement syndrome, I’ll repeat—it’s time to update your talking points.”
The governor’s remarks follow reporting by The Times that showed L.A.’s homicide rate is nearing a record low, mirroring trends in other cities nationwide.
With data from the LAPD and other law enforcement agencies, President Trump’s insistence that crime in California is out of control has come to seem increasingly bombastic. Recently, the president has modified his message to warn of a possible crime resurgence.
“We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again,” Trump said on Truth Social in a post announcing an end to his legal battle to maintain National Guard troops in L.A., Portland and Chicago. “Only a question of time!”
In his speech Thursday, newsom credited the drop in violence to increased funding for crime-fighting initiatives approved by the California Legislature.
“No one’s walked away from public safety,” Newsom said. “We didn’t turn a blind eye to this, we invested in it. We didn’t talk about it, we leaned in.”
Experts cautioned that the reality is more complex. Those who study the causes of crime say it may take years, if not decades, to understand the pandemic-era surge in violence and the subsequent decline.
Trump hammered lawlessness in California during the 2024 presidential campaign and throughout his first year back in the White House. He frequently mentions Newsom while invoking crime and chaos, and regularly threatens to deploy armed soldiers.
Simultaneously, the Trump administration has cut hundreds of millions in federal funding from school safety grants, youth mentoring programs and gang intervention networks that experts say have improved public safety.
Proponents worry those cuts could threaten L.A.’s alternative crisis response programs aimed at reducing reliance on law enforcement. Scores of groups have emerged to assist people experiencing homelessness, drug addiction and untreated mental health disorders—all of which can heighten the perception of crime, even when numbers decline.
Looming federal spending cuts could hinder efforts to expand these initiatives, some warned.
“I just don’t know how we can continue to trend in the right direction without continuing to invest in things that work,” said Thurman Barnes, assistant director of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center.
Data published by the Major Cities Chiefs Assn. shows homicides decreased in San Francisco, San José, Sacramento and Oakland. Other violent crimes,including rape,aggravated assault and robbery,also dropped,with a few exceptions.
Property crime also decreased, the governor said Thursday.
Concerns about street-level disorder and lawlessness contributed to the defeat of progressive administrations across California in 2024 and helped Trump gain ground in some of the state’s bluest cities.
newsom acknowledged Thursday that these concerns are “at the core” of California voters’ frustrations.
“We’re seeing results, making streets safer for everyone,” the governor said.
Jeff Asher, a leading criminologist, said it’s arduous to determine if the perception gap is closing “because we don’t necessarily track it super systematically.”
He pointed to a Gallup poll from late last year that showed less than half of Americans believed that crime had gone up—the first time in two decades that number dipped below 50%.
“The pandemic broke us in a lot of ways, and we’re starting to not feel as broken,” he said.
Newsom also highlighted declines in the number of people experiencing homelessness. Unsheltered homelessness dropped 9% in California and more than 10% in Los Angeles, data he contrasted with an 18% rise in homelessness nationwide.
The visibility of encampments and people in crisis drives perceptions of lawlessness and danger, studies show. Reducing it can alleviate those fears.
California’s overall homeless population remains high, with only modest reductions. Federal funding cuts could hamper further progress, experts warned.
Rather than address the complexities of crime, Newsom portrayed the president as the source of lawlessness, calling the first year of his second term a “carnival of chaos.”
“We face an assault on our values unlike anything I’ve seen in my lifetime,” the governor said. “Secret police. Businesses being raided. Windows smashed, citizens detained, citizens shot. Masked men snatching people in broad daylight, people disappearing. Using American cities as training grounds for the United States military.”
“it’s time for the president of the United States to do his job, not turn his back on Americans that happen to live in the great state of California,” Newsom said.
