SAN JOSE — Just how bad has crime gotten in San Jose? Once known as America’s Safest Big City, the capital of Silicon Valley has a higher crime rate than California or the United States as a whole, while the city’s police force is catching half as many criminals as it did just a few years ago.

That’s according to a new analysis by the city’s independent auditor, which also found the city was clearing a far lower percentage of crimes than the average U.S. city and had seen police response time for some emergency calls more than double in eight years.

The new data come as the six major candidates for mayor each jockey to make public safety their top priority heading into the wide-open June primary. And police Chief Larry Esquivel, sworn in last week, confronts a department with low morale as officers continue to flee for better-paying jobs elsewhere.

“What we’re seeing is the effect of 10 years of skyrocketing costs” for police officers, Mayor Chuck Reed said of the depleted force. “I believe it has an impact on the crime rate — I think we’re seeing that in the deterioration of services. We need more officers.”

Among the findings from auditor Sharon Winslow Erickson’s annual report:

San Jose’s major crimes rate was 35 percent below the U.S. and California averages a decade ago. But last year, it climbed to 3,278 major crimes per 100,000 residents, 3 percent above the California average and 1 percent above the U.S. average, and higher than Los Angeles and San Diego.

Police made about 17,000 arrests last year, down from roughly 36,000 in 2007.

Response times for Priority Two emergency calls, such as attempted rapes and gang disturbances, have shot up from 8.2 minutes in 2005 to more than 20 minutes in 2013.