City of Morgan Hill Public Safety Master Plan

Section 2. Community Overview

Morgan Hill Demographics Morgan Hill, California, located in Santa Clara County, had an estimated populationof 42,068 in July 2014, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. This represents an increase of 11.1 percent since 2010. The city encompasses an areaof approximately 12.88 square miles. As of 2010, the city’s population demographics were: 50.3 percent White, 34.0 percent Hispanic, 10.2 percent Asian, 6.2 percent two or more races, and 2.0 percent Black. The percentage of persons living below the federal poverty level in Morgan Hill from 2010 to 2014, 11.0 percent, was nearly 33 percent lower than the state of California average of 16.4 percent. The owner-occupied housing unit rate from 2010 to 2014 stood at 71.4 percent compared to the state of California rate of 54.8 percent. Generally, higher than average home ownership rates coupled with lower than average poverty rates are representative of a stable community with lower than average crime rates. That is certainly the case in Morgan Hill, as will be illustrated in the following report on crime rates/trends. Uniform Crime Report/Crime Trends This section presents information obtained from Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). That information is funneled through the California Department of Justice. The table and figures include the most recent information that is publicly available. The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report (UCR) contains seven major Part 1 offenses used to measure the extent and distribution of serious crime in a geographic area. Part 1 crimes are the seven most serious violent and property crimes: murder, robbery, rape, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft. One must be cautious in interpreting comparative crime data. Many variables unique to a community can affect crime rates. The data that follows reflect the FBI UCR violent and property crime rate per 100,000 residents for local communities, similarly sized communities in relatively close proximity to Morgan Hill, the state of California and the nation. The data show that Morgan Hill has a significantly lower violent crime rate than the California and national averages. Property crime rates are lower as well. This applies not only to state and the national averages, but reflects that Morgan Hills’ crime rate is lower than comparative California communities. Table 2-1 reflects crime rates from 2014, the last year for which comparative data are officially available. Once again, these rates reflect crimes per 100,000 population and are calculated as such to enable presentation of comparative data.

As shown in Table 2-1, in 2014 Morgan Hill had a UCR Part I violent crime rate of 156 crimes per 100,000 population, which is 60 percent below the state average and 59 percent below the national

Police Operations and Data Analysis Report, Morgan Hill, California

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