LA Crime Down for Fifth Consecutive Year

Los Angeles: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief William Bratton today announced that preliminary statistics for 2006 show the City’s crime rate has dropped for a fifth straight year.   

“While some areas of the city have seen increases in specific types of crime like robberies and gang violence, overall Los Angeles continues to become an even safer place to live, work and visit,” said Chief Bratton.  “The men and women of the LAPD are proving yet again that despite limited resources, with focused and targeted enforcement, cops can and do count.”

The per capita crime rate for Part I crime remained below the 1956 level for the second year in a row.  Preliminary totals show that nearly 11,000 fewer persons were victimized by major crime last year.

According to the FBI’s mid-year Uniform Crime Report (UCR), published last July, Los Angeles placed second behind New York as the safest city among the ten largest in the nation.  Los Angeles had eclipsed San Diego for the first time at mid-year 2005 and maintained its position at the end of 2005 with a crime rate of 351 per 10,000 residents.

While violent crime was up 3.7% mid-year across the nation, it declined in Los Angeles by 2.6% as the year closed.  Property crime in Los Angeles dropped 9%, exceeding the national decline of 2.6%.

All but one of the eight categories of Part I crime showed decreases for the last five years.  In 2006, homicides dropped 2.4%, the lowest since 1999; rape decreased 7.4%; aggravated assaults dropped 9.1%; burglary dipped 8.7%; car burglary dropped 9.2%; personal and other theft decreased 9.7%; and auto theft dropped 8.3%.  Robbery was the only major crime category in the City to increase in 2006 after being down for the last 4 years.

The jump in robbery paralleled the nation’s, but at a lower rate.  At mid-year, the national robbery rate was up 8.4% in the major metropolitan counties.  At one point during the year, robberies rose over 10% across the City, but the year ended with the robbery rate up 5.3%. The largest increases occurred in the San Fernando Valley despite nearly 24% more arrests for robbery, including the capture of several prolific serial robbers. 

The drop in crime is significant compared to LA’s most violent year, 1992, when Part I crimes were 317,796, and homicides were 1,083. In 2006, Part I crimes dropped 55% (as compared to 1992) to 142,502, and homicides declined 56%, to 478.

Victims of shootings declined steadily over the last 5 years.  In 2002, 647 persons were murdered and 2,903 were shot.  In 2006, 211 fewer victims were killed and 689 fewer persons were shot.

In 2006, the LAPD policed the city with a ratio of about one officer for every 445 residents, less than half the rate of New York City.  “The LAPD’s successes in reducing crime over the last five years happened in spite of being one of the most understaffed departments in the nation,” Chief Bratton remarked.  “In recognition of this, Mayor Villaraigosa and the City Council have authorized the hiring of 1,000 more officers over the next few years.”

The following chart shows the change in Part I crime nationwide from 2004 to 2005, compared to changes for Los Angeles in 2005 and 2006:
                                              
US-2005   Crime             LA-2005  LA-2006
                                                            
+3.3%      Homicide         -6.0%       -2.4%
-1.2%      Rape               -16.3%      -7.4%
+3.9%     Robbery           -4.1%        +5.3%
+1.8%    Agg. Assault     -40.0%       -9.1%
+2.3%    Violent Crime     -26.8%      -2.6%
+0.5%    Burglary             -5.6%        -8.7%
-2.3%    Larceny Theft     -12.2%      -9.7%
-0.2%    Auto Theft          -6.6%       -8.3%
-1.5%    Property Crime    -9.6%       -9.0%
+1.%    Part I Crime          -14.0%     -7.7%

The following chart shows the rankings of the ten largest US cities for crime rates per 10,000 residents as of mid-year 2006, according to the FBI’s UCR.
                                              
      City                 Population   Crime Rate       
1    New York         8,101,321     119               
2    Los Angeles      3,864,018     173               
3    San Diego         1,281,366     201               
4    Chicago            2,882,746     215               
5    Philadelphia      1,484,224    268               
6    Las Vegas         1,239,805    293
      Metro               
7    Houston            2,043,446    344               
8    San Antonio      1,235,128     342               
9    Phoenix            1,428,973     344               
10    Dallas             1,228,613     399               

Chief Bratton News conference

Comments

[ShockNAwe]

What a joke, give me a break. You manipulated the numbers for a 5th straight yr. and Lt DelaTorre Get a life you're a clown, you let gangsters
post blogs, but keep deleting mine.
Get a Life.

[confused]

The LAPD still has a problem letting Blacks into speacilaized unts, specifically gangs. Look at the so-called gang units of the LAPD and they are predominately Latino. I don't think its racism, or discrimination, but why is there no conscious effort to get Blacks into units that deal with predominately Black gangs. The crazy thing is if you look at the divisions that are located in the south end, you always have to have that one Black officer, just so they can claim diversity, but its obvious who really get these selected spots. With the increase of gang violence between Black and Hispanic gangs, you would think the LAPD, would recognize a potential perception of a problem having its gang units dominated by one group. I'm not saying employ some quota system, I'm saying that the LAPD should be aware of a potential problem. I can gurantee you that if there was ongoing racial strife between Black and White gangs, there would pressure to get more Blacks into gang units from the loud mouth activist, City Officials, and every other person who wants to claim fairness. However, because the violence is among so-called minorities, although one group is not a minority, there is nothing. No questions as to why gang units are predominately Latino, no cries from the so-called activist, and no calls for diversity even in the LAPD. It appears diversity is only meant when a unit is all white, or now I might say even all Black. Don't even invoke affirmative action into the equation, because I'm still trying to figure out how some of these people are even chosen into these units. I think it helps if you are cool with the supervisors responible for getting officers in the unit. If the supervision in gangs is mostly Latino, generally people tend to associate with people who share similar backgrounds as they, most likely the people they recruit will be Latino. You don't need a quota system, affirmative action, or any other system to observe rather or not you are just hooking up people you are cool with.

[Harry]

LAPD BlogPreviewing your Comment
Dep Chief Moore took resources from other divisions to help bring part 1 crimes down in NHWD division. They were being over run with burglaries and burglaries from motor vehicles. The coppers in that division could not hold back those crimes so they needed to take cops from other divisions to help bring down their stats. My only problem with that tactic is what happens to the other division he took cops from. Their man-power goes down and crime will go up. Why didnt they work on the crime problems earlier in the year instead on waiting until the last minute? Why wasn't Metro division given the task of doing the crime suppression to help bring the stats down? Why didn't they have cash overtime details to hit those crime if they were short handed on cops? Why isn't Dep Chief Moore reprimanded for letting the crime in his area get out of control? This is rediculous. I said this befor, if Dep Chief Moore can't get the job done then maybe the Chief of Police should find another man or woman that could. The crime in his area has gone up,the people perceive gang crime as out of control and all he can do is compair his stats to other areas. Not good and not being a good leader.

Posted by: Harry at Jan 5, 2025 1:15:55 PM

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[Gang Officer]

The comment about the gang units not selecting Black Officers is interesting. I am a White P-3 in one of the city's gang units and in three years, I have yet to have a Black Officer apply. In fact it is very hard in some divisions to get any applicants at all because of the three twelves. Now I support the 3-12's 100%, but from most patrol officers point of view, why would you want to give up a good schedule to work every Wed -> Saturday, and have to use a T/O to get a day off. Not to mention your hours are subject to change at no notice. I believe Gangs should be like Vice, and have everyone oral interview in and make P-3. That would off set the other drawbacks and raise the quality of those selected.

[Watts Up!]

"Confused" is exactly that: Confused. Obviously, you have no South End experience (with the possible exception of a brief probationary period spent at Harbor Division or SouthWorst). If you want to have more Blacks in the gang units working in South Central, perhaps you should look at the available pool of officers that meet the criteria for assignment. From your posting, it appears that you have been misinformed or just do not know that this is a voluntary assignment. Black officers are NOT beating down the gang office doors trying to get in. It’s just you and you alone. You speak of assigning officers to these units to quell the public perception of inequity. This is actually your perception, most likely gained because you were passed over for a gang unit spot. Perhaps that sergeant was not as impressed as you were by your no bike-light tickets. The exhilaration you felt when you booked a 70 year old smoker for the misdemeanor warrant he was issued in 1993 was probably not shared by the gun-chasing officers of his unit. You mention some supervisors are "hooking up people you are cool with". Listen up. I am not "cool" with mediocre officers. This is potentially deadly business. When each one of us leaves the house, loved ones wait for their "hero" to return home. I may work the kit room, front desk, or clean-up Metro's stables, but it doesn't matter to them. I am "cool" with outstanding officers that exceed the standards of the Department and approach my own expectations based on rank, training, experience, knowledge and maturity. Hopefully, you are not a training officer. It took 1 minute to recognize your bitterness and be disgusted by it. I can't imagine being a P-1 forced to spend 10-12 hours a day in your company while you drive circles around the station and then drive 20 miles to the full pop catering truck you eat at everyday.

[Loves LA LEOs]

Gang Officer and Watts Up, some people are not aware of what is at stake and how much you do with how little - even people in your own department. I know you leave sleeping family members wondering if you will come home to them. I know you if you eat you do it in 10 or 15 minutes and then run back to the action. Don't be angry with people who don't understand; just do what you are doing here and provide information. I know what you are doing because your issues are very close to my heart and I care enough to make it my business. You have told me you don't have time to sit at a computer and use the internet, but if you would provide one gang officer's contact information on this blog site, you will find that the communities you serve want to help you, protect you, and support you - and they do know what is going on. Thank you for taking the time to educate others. You are right; gang detail is not for everyone. I've met a lot of you in person, and I know the only race issue in play is the one the gangs are using against society. If it wasn't for your hard charging, blue bleeding aggression, there would be a lot more dead African American and Latino children. You are the difference; I pray you persevere and stay safe.