California Attorney General, and former Governor, Jerry Brown is hinting he may run for governor again, according to this article in the SF Chron by John Wildermuth. His speech to the Democratic convention includes this statement:

When he was governor, there were 20,000 people in state prison, Brown said. Now there are more than 170,000, and "we've got more crime than ever before."

Um, excuse me. According the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the violent crime rate in 1982, the last full year Mr. Brown was governor, was 814.7 per 100,000 population. In 2006, the last year with final numbers, it was 532.5/100k. That is not more, Mr. Brown, that is 34.6% less. The property crime figures per capita are 6,470.7 and 3,170.9, respectively. That's less than half.

Even the absolute crime numbers are down from 1982 to 2006, despite a 47% increase in population.

Of course, there are multiple factors involved in the crime drop, but saying we have more crime now than then is just factually wrong.

Here is the BJS Data Online, if you'd like to check for yourself.