Oakland · March 2026 briefing

Oakland Crime Rate Trends

The city, by the numbers we publish each month: 35 neighborhoods, 10 incident categories, twelve months of trailing comparison. Browse the rankings, scan the multi-year trends, or open a neighborhood-level breakdown.

Read methodologyUPDATED · AS OF 2026-03
142
tracked signals this month — across spikes, drops, sustained shifts, rare events.
-21.4%
overall city incident volume vs. trailing 12-month avg.
35
neighborhoods covered. Each gets its own page.
10
incident categories tracked, NIBRS-aligned.

Millsmont homicide is the dominant signal in March 2026 — the sharpest single-neighborhood move this briefing. The category registered an above-trend spike in a neighborhood where homicide counts are typically low, making it the most statistically distinct shift across Oakland this month. No prior-month lead combo carries over; this is a fresh signal at the top of the rankings.

Citywide volume is down 21.4% against the prior 12 months — 27,715 incidents versus 35,259 the year before. The mix is weighted heavily toward declines: 72 sustained-shift signals and 66 below-trend signals across 35 neighborhoods, against just 3 fresh spikes and 1 streak break. Piedmont Pines appears twice in the top five, with both an other-larceny spike and an aggravated-assault streak break, while San Antonio robbery ran below trend.

The broad structural picture in Oakland is one of sustained decline — 142 total signals this month tilt overwhelmingly toward the downside. The Millsmont homicide spike is the one category that cuts against that pattern and warrants watching into April. Whether it reflects a cluster or the start of a directional change in the neighborhood is not yet determinable from a single month of data.

WHAT TO READ NEXT
Direct answers

Oakland Crime Frequently Asked Questions

Trailing 12 months vs the prior 12 months, computed from the same NIBRS-aligned categories used everywhere else on the page. Updated each March 2026 briefing.

Is crime in Oakland down?

Yes — citywide incident volume is 21.4% lower than the prior 12 months.

Across the trailing 12-month window we tracked 27,715 incidents in NIBRS-aligned categories, compared to 35,259 in the year before — down 7,544 incidents.

Is violent crime in Oakland down?

Yes — homicide, robbery, aggravated assault, and sexual assault are down 24.8% combined in the trailing 12 months.

That's 3,981 violent incidents in the past year against 5,292 in the prior year. See the by-category section below for the per-bucket breakdown.

Is property crime in Oakland down?

Yes — burglary, theft from vehicle, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson are down 20.3% combined in the trailing 12 months.

That's 20,763 property incidents in the past year against 26,047 in the prior year.

Which neighborhood in Oakland saw the biggest crime drop?

Brookfield Village — 43.1% fewer incidents than the prior 12 months.

Brookfield Village logged 892 incidents in the trailing 12 months against 1,569 the year before.

Which neighborhood in Oakland saw the biggest crime increase?

Rockridge — 15.5% more incidents than the prior 12 months.

Rockridge logged 1,304 incidents in the trailing 12 months against 1,129 the year before.

City profile

The denominators behind the numbers

SOURCES · US CENSUS ACS 2023 · OAKLAND OPEN DATA · OPD
Geography
Land area55.9 mi²
Water area22.1 mi²
CoastlineBay frontage + Estuary
Elevation0–1,761 ft
Police beats57
Neighborhoods35 (analysis units)

Bay-fronting, hill-stacked city; the I-580 ridge and Highway 13 carve the flatlands from the hills, and major arterials (Telegraph, MacArthur, International) define most neighborhood boundaries.

Population
433,434
Density~7,754 / mi²
Median age38.7
Households~171K
Avg HH size2.73

ACS 2023 5-year estimates, county-level (Alameda County). Includes Oakland plus other Alameda municipalities in the demographic aggregates — county is the smallest official ACS geography matching where Oakland city data lives.

Housing
Units~186K
Median rent$2,318
Median home value$1.06M
Vacancy7.8%
Tenure
Renter 58%Owner 42%
Stock
SFH 47%2–4 unit 17%5+ unit 36%
Economy & people
Median HH income$126,240
Poverty rate13.6%
Unemployment6.0%
Bachelor's+48.0%
Foreign-born26.9%
Age distribution
<18 19%18–34 26%35–64 41%65+ 14%

City-level only. We deliberately do not juxtapose these with neighborhood-level crime data — see the methodology for why.

Built environment
Street miles~825
Parks (acres)~3,200
BART stations8
Walk score73 (very walkable)

Mixed-density city: walkable flatlands corridors (Telegraph, College, International) coexist with car-dependent hills neighborhoods. Crime-rate denominators differ sharply between the two.

Policing context
OPD sworn officers~700
Officers / 10K res.~16
911 calls / yr~600K
Open data lag≈ 90 days

OPD migrated to NIBRS reporting in 2021; pre-2021 records use a different taxonomy and are excluded from the analysis window. Up to 90 days of post-month processing means recent months may be incomplete.

Interactive map

Every neighborhood, color-coded

CLICK A NEIGHBORHOOD →
Category
Layer
Window
RAW COUNT · 1Y
1171,1362,155
Rankings

Largest moves this month

SORTED BY |Z|
#NeighborhoodCategoryMoMYoY 12mo|z|90-day trendSignal
01MillsmontHomicide0%+25%4.16SPIKE
02Piedmont PinesOther Larceny+300%+4%2.53SPIKE
03RockridgeTheft from Vehicle-11%+62%2.53SPIKE
04Piedmont PinesAggravated AssaultSTREAK BREAK
05San AntonioRobbery-50%-56%5.96DROP
06Seminary ParkVandalism0%-22%4.91DROP
07West OaklandBurglary-42%-44%4.90DROP
08Brookfield VillageMotor Vehicle Theft+18%-38%4.82DROP
09Maxwell ParkVandalism-17%-44%4.81DROP
10GlenviewAggravated Assault-100%-38%4.76DROP
11Lockwood GardensMotor Vehicle Theft+22%-36%4.55DROP
12Lockwood GardensVandalism-40%-19%4.47DROP
Showing top 12 of 20 (neighborhood × category) cells with tracked signals.
Multi-year trends

The long arc — eight years of monthly counts

SELECT A CATEGORY ↓
0275380106201820192020202120222023202420252026monthly12-mo rolling mean
Latest 12mo716
YoY 12mo-13%
5-year change+214%
Window change
Peak (12mo avg)74 · Jan '24
Trough (12mo avg)0 · Nov '18
ALL CATEGORIES · 8-YEAR ARC · 12-MO ROLLING MEAN
2018 ─────────────────── 2026
When does it happen?

Hour-of-day, day-of-week, and seasonality

Distribution of bucketed incidents citywide across the full analysis window. Useful for routine context — shopping-strip thefts vs. late-night assaults read very differently when you can see when each typically happens.

HOUR OF DAY · ALL CATEGORIES
07,80115,60112am6am12pm6pm11pm

Hour 0 is mildly inflated by reports without a known time defaulting to midnight — see methodology.

DAY OF WEEK · ALL CATEGORIES
018,52137,041MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
MONTH OF YEAR · ALL CATEGORIES
011,30722,614JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Methodology

Every signal, every forecast, documented

Open about how we define spikes, what we exclude as noise, where the data comes from, and how often the model is wrong.

# anomaly rule — spike
flag = (z >= 2.5) AND (current_12mo >= 20) AND (current_6mo above sustained band)
where z = (current_12mo − μ_baseline) / σ_baseline
# exclusions (excerpt)
· simple assault (varies by reporting practice)
· drug offenses (reflect policing policy)
· admin records, weapons-possession, fraud
# 2025 backtest (citywide)
7 of 10 categories ≥ 90% coverage. see table →