Five years ago, independent researchers at Morgan Quinto Press rated San Jose the nation’s safest city among those with a population over 500,000.

Now, with a month to go in 2012 the city is about to top a two-decade high for homicides: 43. Eight murders in 11 days in August were a major contributor. Homicides reached 41 in 2011, nearly double the year before.

Although critics argue that raw crime statistics are inherently misleading and that homicide statistics are a bad gauge of crime, in general, a spike in murders gets the attention of politicians and the public.

Police union and department officials claim that budget cuts, which thinned the ranks and reduced services, have led to a steady increase in crime. Burglaries reportedly surged 39% in August over a year before, and rapes, stolen cars and robberies were up double digits. The number of sworn police officers has shrunk to 1,050 from 1,395 three years ago.

“It's the most bizarre city in the world when it comes to downplaying the crime rate,” union president Jim Unland told the San Jose Mercury News. “It's like this city just doesn't want to acknowledge there's violence and it's on the increase here.”

Indeed, the city does not. The objects of their scorn, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and his administration, disagree that crime is all that bad and claim that the per-capita crime rate is low for a city its size. San Jose had 330 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2011, about half San Francisco’s rate and one-fifth of Oakland’s.     

-Ken Broder

To Learn More:

As San Jose Hits Homicide Milestone, Police and Mayor Trade Accusations (by Peter Delevett, San Jose Mercury News)

San Jose Seeks Answers Amid Violence (by Justin Berton, San Francisco Chronicle)

Criminologists Assign City Crime Rankings Low Score (by Carl Bialik, Wall Street Journal)