The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department released crime data for the first six months of 2026, which shows that violent crimes have stayed up nearly 18% over the previous year, while property crimes have seen a nearly 8% decrease, based on incidents reported to the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station.
The first six months of 2025 saw 1,609 Part-I crimes, which encompasses property crimes and violent crimes including everything from criminal homicide to larceny theft — compared to 1,536 for the first six months of this year.
That represents an overall decrease of about 4.5%, with the biggest reduction coming in reports of grand theft auto. Patrol deputies responded to 264 reports of stolen vehicles in the first half of 2025, an average of nearly 10 a week, compared to 155 in 2026, a nearly 41% reduction.
SCV Sheriff’s Station Capt. Brandon Barclay did not respond to a request to be interviewed for this story. A sergeant with the LASD’s Taskforce for Regional Auto Theft Prevention, or TRAP, which focuses on auto theft, was not immediately available for comment.
There also was a big dropoff in burglaries, from 239 last year to 188 reported over the same six-month period in 2026.
The total number of property crimes declined by nearly 8% over the past year for the SCV station, from 1,609 in 2025 to 1,536 in 2026.
To add perspective to the picture, the Glendale Police Department, which patrols the next largest city in the county, with a population estimated to be about 40,000 people fewer than Santa Clarita’s 227,000, reported 1,830 Part-I crimes over the same time period.
Lancaster, which is the next largest city with about 170,000 people, reported 1,945 Part-I incidents in the first six months of the year. Both Glendale and Lancaster also reported significant drops in their overall crime numbers.
The largest statistically significant increase in crime in 2026 continues to be in violent crime, for aggravated assaults.
The number of reported robberies throughout the SCV indicated a 5% decrease in a year-over-year comparison, and sexual assaults also declined, after 2025 saw the number of reported rapes nearly double over the previous year.
There were 39 in the first half of 2025 and 30 in the first half of this year, a decrease of about 23%. Countywide, the number of sexual assaults declined by just over 3%, and overall violent crime was down 5%.
Looking at the broader context, Santa Clarita has consistently touted its lower crime rate comparative to cities its size, and consistently scores well when comparisons are made of “safe cities,” based on the crime data.
Statistically speaking, the city is about as safe as it was five years ago — the SCV Sheriff’s Station reported that there were 1,529 Part-I crimes in 2021, seven fewer incidents than this year, which was a 3.4% increase over 2020. (Property crimes tended to drop everywhere in 2020 due to COVID-19-related closures, making it a statistical outlier in many respects for crime.)
The Sheriff’s Department regularly releases crime data as part of the sheriff’s Transparency page on the LASD website, which also has a crime dashboard that lets the public see data current to the end of the previous month.
The area’s Part-I crimes are also calculated yearly and shared with the FBI, which uses the data to determine crime rates for an area, the number of incidents per 100,000 people.
