The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department released its end-of-year crime numbers for 2025 this month, showing Part-I crimes overall are down nearly 14% for the Santa Clarita Valley in a year-over-year comparison, while violent crime increased by almost 6%.
The number of Part-I crimes for an area, which includes property crimes, such as burglaries, and violent crimes, including assault and homicide, is used by the FBI to determine a city’s crime rate when looking at how often they occur per 100,000 people.
In 2025, there were a total of 3,305 reported incidents that were classified as Part-I, with the overwhelming majority — about 2,836 of them, more than 85% — in the property category, which also counts crimes like shoplifting, auto theft and arson. In 2024, there were 3,839 Part-I incidents.
Violent crimes, which include homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, were on the rise last year due mostly to a 91% increase in sexual assaults, which local officials have not been able to explain with a reason or particular factor. There were 35 sexual assaults reported in 2024 and 67 reported last year.
Sgt. Joseph Mesa, who leads the Special Victims Bureau investigations for LASD’s North County region, which includes the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys, acknowledged it was a concern that department officials have discussed, particularly at the station level. SCV Sheriff’s Station Capt. Brandon Barclay did not respond to a request to be interviewed for this story.
Cmdr. Justin Diez, former station captain, said there’s been no serial offender, but said anecdotally deputies have reported an increase in domestic violence, which was a factor in the rise in aggravated assaults in city limits.
Countywide, the number of sexual assaults reported last year increased by 15%, while every other crime category countywide decreased, based on the Part-I data. Overall, Part-I crimes were down 12%, with a nearly 3% drop in violent crime and a 14% drop in property crimes.
Murder was the only other area of violent crime that saw an increase in incidents reported to the SCV Sheriff’s Station.
There were four homicides reported in 2025, one more than last year: a 22-year-old Garden Grove man is charged will killing a 21-year-old Newhall woman that he was in a dating relationship with; an 81-year-old man is charged with the murder of his wife; and two people were shot on Halloween outside a house party, and detectives have not released any information on a suspect or possible motive.
The overall drop in Santa Clarita comes largely due to larceny thefts, which decreased by more than 400 incidents, or 18.5% stationwide, last year. A common example of larceny theft is shoplifting.
Despite the uptick in violent crimes, the city of Santa Clarita still garnered two mentions last year for safety, according to officials: It was ranked fifth-safest city in the nation for Home and Community Safety by WalletHub, a personal finance website that annually reviews cities’ crime data, and also placed Santa Clarita in the top-10 overall for safety.
Santa Clarita City Manager Ken Striplin recently mentioned the city’s recognition for safety during a Budget Committee at City Hall.
The city’s annual spending plan for 2026-27 once again has public safety as its largest expense, with the city’s Sheriff’s Department contract the largest portion of that cost.
Last year, Santa Clarita spent approximately $36.9 million on its LASD contract, a cost certain to go up for 2026-27, he said at the meeting. The cost is more than one-fifth of its overall nearly $155 million in expenditures planned.
“Public safety has been the top priority of the city since incorporation,” Striplin said in a statement sent via email Friday. “We work closely with our public safety partners to drive crime down through targeted enforcement and investing in the latest public safety resources to ensure Santa Clarita remains one of the safest cities in the nation.”
