Hermosa Beach's Q2 Serious Crime Stayed Flat Versus Last Year

Hermosa Beach's overall serious crime count is still down significantly for the year to date, but that decline is concentrated almost entirely in the first three months of 2026. Once April, May and June are counted using the police department's most current figures, the second quarter comes out essentially even with a year earlier, propped up by a sharp rise in simple assault and a near-tripling of motor vehicle theft that offset a broader softening in property crime.

That picture emerges from four monthly National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) summaries the Hermosa Beach Police Department has published so far this year, covering April through July 2026. Group A offenses, the FBI's classification for the department's most serious reportable crimes, totaled 450 from January through June, down 13.8 percent from 522 over the same period in 2025. Through July, the count stood at 505 against 644 a year earlier, a decline of 21.6 percent.

The second quarter, recalculated

HBPD's monthly reports are labeled preliminary, and comparing successive releases shows why that matters. April's total was first reported as 53 offenses, then revised to 73 a month later. May's total was first reported as 66, then revised to 96. June's count has held at 91 across two later reports, suggesting figures stabilize roughly six to eight weeks after a month closes.

Using each month's most current count, the second quarter totaled 260 Group A offenses, essentially flat against 256 a year earlier.

The flat total masks divergent trends. Crimes against persons rose sharply, driven almost entirely by simple assault, up from 17 cases to 28 (+64.7%), while aggravated assault held roughly flat (14 vs. 15). Under the FBI's classification, aggravated assault involves a weapon or an attempt to inflict severe injury; simple assault involves neither. Property crime declined only slightly overall, but that modest figure conceals a stark split: motor vehicle theft jumped from 2 cases to 18 (+800%), even as theft from vehicles, counterfeiting and stolen-property offenses kept falling. Crimes against society fell 13.3 percent, without a single standout driver.

Month to month, the trajectory was uneven rather than steadily improving or worsening:

May was the quarter's only month with a year-over-year increase.

Where the year-to-date decline actually comes from

HBPD's January, February and March NIBRS releases put first-quarter 2026 offenses at 185, against 266 in the first quarter of 2025, a decline of 30.5 percent, more than double the pace of the full six-month decline. The first quarter also holds HBPD's only homicide entry of the year so far: one case classified as murder or nonnegligent manslaughter, recorded in March, against zero in the same period in 2025.

In other words, the "crime is down significantly this year" headline is largely a story about January through March, not about the spring months that followed.

The categories driving the full-year decline reflect that front-loading. Year to date through June, theft from motor vehicles is down 60 percent, counterfeiting and forgery down 60.5 percent, and stolen property offenses down 61.9 percent, all consistent with steep early-year drops that the second quarter did not reverse but also did not repeat. Drug and narcotic violations are down roughly a third for the year. Aggravated assault, the more serious of the two assault categories, is down 37.9 percent year to date even as simple assault has climbed 67.9 percent, a pattern already visible in the second-quarter numbers above.

Motor vehicle theft is the clearest exception to the citywide decline and the one category where the second quarter added to, rather than offset, a first-quarter trend. It is up 163.6 percent year to date through June, 29 cases against 11 a year earlier, and remained elevated through July, 34 versus 18.

A note on the data

HBPD's monthly reports are preliminary and get revised over time. Every month tracked here moved up meaningfully in the report that followed it. We use the revised numbers to try to give the best available summary of prevailing crime trends. Remember - this data contains only those offenses that meet the threshold for federally mandated reporting. The numbers do not include any minor offenses below that threshold.

FURTHER READING:

Hermosa Beach Serious Reported Crime Down 36% in First Quarter 2026

Hermosa Beach recorded just 45 serious crimes in March, capping a first quarter that saw total offenses fall 36% from the prior year. That’s the lowest Q1 figure in the last four years.

The Hermosa ReviewHermosa Review