The first part of this analysis found that the California communities with the highest recorded rates of fatal law-enforcement encounters were not always the large cities most commonly associated with violent crime.
When the historical records are considered by demographic group, however, California’s pattern resembles the broader national picture. The underlying tabulations covered 13 years of officer-involved deaths and showed familiar disparities by race, age, sex, education, and place.
Archive context
This article discusses historical tabulations rather than current conditions. Its figures come from California health-statistics and coroner-report records available for the original analysis; they should not be read as a live statewide count for 2026.
Geography changes the statewide picture
In the historical county comparison, Fresno, Riverside, Humboldt, San Bernardino, and Kern had the highest rates among major counties. Placer, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz had the lowest. Alameda County, which includes Oakland, and Los Angeles County were both below the statewide average in the period examined.
The contrasts were not limited to counties. Eureka and Arcata appeared broadly comparable on the surface, as did Moreno Valley and Santa Clarita, yet the recorded outcomes differed substantially. The analysis argued that these local differences deserved more attention than broad assumptions about urban danger.
Disparities in the historical record
African Americans were recorded as 3.6 times more likely than white residents—and 7.7 times more likely than Asian residents—to be killed by officers. Latino rates fell between those groups.
Older teenagers had approximately the same recorded rate as adults ages 45–54. Rates peaked in the twenties for people of color and in the late thirties for non-Latino white residents.
Among people recorded as killed by law enforcement, 97 percent were male and 94 percent died from gunfire.
Three-quarters had a high-school education or less, 9 percent were veterans, and 96 percent were U.S. residents in the tabulated records.
Health-statistics tabulations based on coroner reports counted more than 3,000 Californians killed by law enforcement from 1960 through 2012, although the original analysis cautioned that the figure might be understated. Annual totals in that dataset peaked at 99 in 2005 and 95 in 2006, then fell to 30 in 2011 and 46 in 2012. The 2011 total was the lowest since 1980.
The racial disparity persisted even as the underlying population grew. In the decade from 1963 through 1972, the records counted 177 African Americans killed by law enforcement in California. From 2003 through 2012, the count was 123 in a much larger population, with a rate still reported at 2.7 times the statewide average.
Questions for prevention
The original analysis compared jurisdictions likely to present officers with difficult or threatening situations. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Jose, Placer, Contra Costa, and San Joaquin were contrasted with Fresno, Bakersfield, Modesto, San Bernardino, Humboldt, Riverside, and Shasta. The second group’s recorded rate of fatal encounters averaged more than eight times that of the first.
Several explanations could contribute to such differences: incomplete statistics, different levels or kinds of danger, local policing practices, or some combination of those factors. The records alone do not establish causation. They do make a strong case for consistent reporting and close comparison of training, policy, supervision, and local circumstances.
Understanding why apparently similar communities recorded dramatically different outcomes may help identify practices that reduce preventable deaths. That question—not a presumption about any one place—remains the analysis’s central lesson.
Source note: The historical figures described here were attributed in the original analysis to California Center for Health Statistics EPIC tabulations based on coroner reports. This edited archive presentation preserves the argument while clarifying that the figures are not current.