Violent crime rate climbs 4% in state

California’s violent crime rate went up 4.1 percent in 2016, rising for a second consecutive year, according to state data released Thursday.

The Department of Justice’s annual Crime in California report said there were 174,701 homicides, rapes, robberies and assaults last year. Police recorded 1,930 killings, the most since 2009.

While many law enforcement leaders across the Bay Area and state have expressed concern about the trend, violent crimes are still off by more than 50 percent since the spikes of the early 1990s.

San Francisco has reported decreases in overall violent crime over the past two years, with a 7.7 drop in 2015 and an 8 percent drop in 2016, officials said.

Property crime fell 2.9 percent last year across the state, the state data show. Breakins, thefts and car burglaries have been relatively flat in the past decade, despite fears that reforms meant to shrink the prison and jail populations would fuel a crime surge.

San Francisco, which has been struck by an epidemic of vehicle break-ins in recent years, saw property crime fall about 10 percent in 2016 compared with the year before.

According to the state data, San Francisco police made arrests in 36 percent of violent crimes and 7 percent of property crimes. Statewide, law enforcement agencies made arrests in 45 percent of violent crimes and 12 percent of property crimes.

Hate crimes increased about 11 percent last year, with 931 reported incidents. There were 519 crimes involving a racial bias, a jump of more than 21 percent, and 207 crimes involving a sexual-orientation bias, a rise of more than 10 percent.