Violent Crime Drops Significantly In East Palo Alto: Report

EAST PALO ALTO, CA -- East Palo Alto has slowly changed its reputation as a crime-filled city. The Mercury News this week reported the city has seen violent crime "dropped precipitously — by over 60 percent in the past 25 years."

It's a major feat for a city once known as the "Murder Capital," the Mercury News reported.

"East Palo Alto became the per-capita murder leader of the United States in 1992 when its 42 homicides, fueled by gang and drug warfare among its population of 24,000, pushed its killing rates past crime-plagued Compton and Washington, D.C. In 2017, the city logged one homicide, a mid-December murder-suicide between domestic partners, not a street crime. Since 2014, the city has seen no more than a handful of killings each year. Aggravated assault totals are hovering in the 50s, plummeting 80 percent from four years ago," the newspaper reported.

The Mercury News reported that the drop in crimes could be attributed to the economics of the city and the role of police officers changing.

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