Mayor boasts San Jose is safest Bay Area city, but some counter crime isn’t all that matters

LAST MONTH, THE mayor of San Jose made a sweeping declaration online about his city’s safety record.

Mayor Matt Mahan’s office calculated that San Jose boasted the lowest homicides per capita compared to Oakland and San Francisco in 2023. His office used state population data and reporting by NBC Bay Area, which attributed its crime statistics to the San Jose Police Department. The mayor hailed San Jose police for solving 100 percent of homicide cases between 2021 and 2022.