FBI Preliminary Crime Report for 2018.  The Preliminary Crime Report for 2018 was released last week.  The report tracks violent and property crimes reported to police for U.S. cities with populations of 100,000 or more during the first six months of the year.  The report makes general findings for the nation as a whole, noting a decrease in violent crime in three of the nation's four regions, the Northeast, the Midwest, and the South, with a slight increase in the West. Property crimes were down nationally with the West experiencing the smallest decrease. In California, of the 72 cities included in the report, 42 (58%) had increased violent crime. Notably, in Los Angeles violent crime was slightly down (1.1%), San Francisco (0.2%), and Sacramento (4.2%), but was up 4.5% in San Diego. Cities with the largest increases in violent crime, included Sunnyvale (45%), Simi Valley (35.8), Freemont (34.6%), Fullerton (30.8), and El Cajon (30%).  Reported property crimes were down in the state. This is probably because the most commonly committed property crimes were downgraded from felonies to misdemeanors in 2014 by Proposition 47 which, according most to District Attorneys, Police Chiefs, and Sheriffs, makes them far less likely to be reported. A more thorough analysis of these new statistics will be reported in a few weeks.