Oakland Crime Rate Trends
Data sourced from the Oakland Police Department (OPD) Open Data portal and analyzed by Public Analyst.ai: 35 neighborhoods, 10 incident categories, twelve months of trailing comparison. Browse the rankings, scan the multi-year trends, or open a neighborhood-level breakdown.
Piedmont Pines other-larceny is the headline signal for March 2026 — a fresh spike that moves the category to the top of Oakland's rankings this month. The prior briefing lead, Millsmont homicide, remains in the top five and is worth watching, but homicide has now been the dominant bucket across recent months; other-larceny represents a category shift in what's driving the anomaly rankings.
Citywide volume is down 20.6% against the prior 12 months — 27,981 incidents versus 35,258 the year before. The signal mix leans heavily toward declines: 68 sustained-shift signals and 64 below-trend signals across 35 neighborhoods, against just 3 spikes and 1 streak break. Rockridge theft-from-vehicle and San Antonio robbery also surface in the top five, the latter running below trend.
The structural story for Oakland in March 2026 is a broad, sustained decline — 136 total signals with the overwhelming majority pointing downward. The Piedmont Pines other-larceny spike is new this month and breaks from that pattern, making it the one category to track as April data comes in. Millsmont homicide remains the persistent backdrop.
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 20.6% lower than the prior 12 months.
Across the trailing 12-month window we tracked 27,981 incidents in NIBRS-aligned categories, compared to 35,258 in the year before — down 7,277 incidents.
Is violent crime in Oakland down?
Yes — homicide, robbery, aggravated assault, and sexual assault are down 24.7% combined in the trailing 12 months.
That's 3,985 violent incidents in the past year against 5,291 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 19.4% combined in the trailing 12 months.
That's 20,998 property incidents in the past year against 26,047 in the prior year.
What are the safest neighborhoods to stay in Oakland?
- Upper Rockridge — 18.7 incidents per 1,000 residents
- Montclair — 24.9 incidents per 1,000 residents
- Piedmont Pines — 25.1 incidents per 1,000 residents
The three safest neighborhoods in Oakland, ranked by trailing-12-month incidents per 1,000 residents.
Computed as NIBRS-aligned trailing-12-month incident totals divided by the latest ACS 5-year residential population, expressed per 1,000 residents. Restricted to neighborhoods with at least 1,000 residents so park-only and industrial geographies — where visitor populations are not reflected in the residential denominator — are excluded.
Which neighborhood in Oakland saw the biggest crime drop?
Brookfield Village — 42.6% fewer incidents than the prior 12 months.
Brookfield Village logged 901 incidents in the trailing 12 months against 1,569 the year before.
Which neighborhood in Oakland saw the biggest crime increase?
Rockridge — 18.2% more incidents than the prior 12 months.
Rockridge logged 1,334 incidents in the trailing 12 months against 1,129 the year before.
The denominators behind the numbers
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.
ACS 2024 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.
City-level only. We deliberately do not juxtapose these with neighborhood-level crime data — see the methodology for why.
Mixed-density city: walkable flatlands corridors (Telegraph, College, International) coexist with car-dependent hills neighborhoods. Crime-rate denominators differ sharply between the two.
OPD migrated to NIBRS reporting in 2021; pre-2021 records use a different taxonomy and are excluded from the analysis window. CrimeWatch metadata cites a 90-day post-month processing window, but in practice ~92% of incidents land in the feed within 30 days — the briefing uses a 30-day settle buffer. The most recent reported month may show a small undercount.
Every neighborhood, color-coded
Largest moves this month
| # | Neighborhood | Category | MoM | YoY 12mo | vs baseline | 90-day trend | Signal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Millsmont | Homicide | 0% | +25% | +83% | SPIKE | |
| 02 | Piedmont Pines | Other Larceny | +350% | +6% | +33% | SPIKE | |
| 03 | Rockridge | Theft from Vehicle | -29% | +67% | +81% | SPIKE | |
| 04 | Piedmont Pines | Aggravated Assault | — | — | — | STREAK BREAK | |
| 05 | San Antonio | Robbery | -50% | -56% | -64% | DROP | |
| 06 | Seminary Park | Vandalism | 0% | -22% | -34% | DROP | |
| 07 | West Oakland | Burglary | -42% | -44% | -52% | DROP | |
| 08 | Maxwell Park | Vandalism | -17% | -44% | -58% | DROP | |
| 09 | Brookfield Village | Motor Vehicle Theft | +18% | -38% | -53% | DROP | |
| 10 | Glenview | Aggravated Assault | -100% | -38% | -54% | DROP | |
| 11 | Lockwood Gardens | Motor Vehicle Theft | +22% | -36% | -50% | DROP | |
| 12 | Fruitvale | Robbery | -8% | -56% | -63% | DROP |
The long arc — eight years of monthly counts
Four neighborhoods worth your time
Millsmont
The past 12 months saw 20 incidents — about 83% above the 11 average from prior years.
Read briefing →SPIKE · OTHER LARCENYPiedmont Pines
The past 12 months saw 53 incidents — about 33% above the 40 average from prior years.
Read briefing →SPIKE · THEFT FROM VEHICLERockridge
The past 12 months saw 756 incidents — about 81% above the 418 average from prior years.
Read briefing →STREAK BREAK · AGGRAVATED ASSAULTPiedmont Pines
First incident since February 2024 — a 2-year gap ended this month.
Read briefing →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.
All 35 Oakland neighborhoods
Crime rate trends and March 2026 briefings for every tracked neighborhood. Alphabetical.
- Adams Point crime rate
- Brookfield Village crime rate
- Chinatown crime rate
- Clinton crime rate
- Dimond District crime rate
- Downtown crime rate
- Eastlake crime rate
- Eastmont crime rate
- Elmhurst crime rate
- Financial District crime rate
- Fruitvale crime rate
- Glenview crime rate
- Golden Gate crime rate
- Grand Lake crime rate
- Jack London Square crime rate
- Jingletown crime rate
- Laurel crime rate
- Lockwood Gardens crime rate
- Longfellow crime rate
- Maxwell Park crime rate
- Melrose crime rate
- Millsmont crime rate
- Montclair crime rate
- Oakmore Highlands crime rate
- Piedmont Avenue crime rate
- Piedmont Pines crime rate
- Pill Hill crime rate
- Rockridge crime rate
- San Antonio crime rate
- Seminary Park crime rate
- Temescal crime rate
- Upper Rockridge crime rate
- Uptown crime rate
- West Oakland crime rate
- Westlake crime rate
How We Calculate Oakland Crime Trends
Open about how we define spikes, what we exclude as noise, where the data comes from, and how often the model is wrong.