In light of the two shootings at Bohnett Park this year, the Independent requested violent crime data from the Santa Barbara Police Department. According to that data, over the past year, just 1.4 percent of violent crime has been gang-related in the City of Santa Barbara.
Since July 1, 2025, there have been 1,569 instances of violent crime — ranging from a fist fight to murder and rape — in Santa Barbara, and 22 of those incidents have been confirmed to be gang-related.
Commander Nathan Beltran said that the number of gang-related incidents is “not alarming” and that typically, this kind of crime comes in waves. “Sometimes it seems like a bigger wave because of the significance of some of the individual crimes themselves,” he said.
SBPD statistics from July 1, 2025 to June 29, 2026.…