I was happy to be able to share good news about the city's crime rate Friday morning, as I joined the Mayor and Chief Beck to detail the latest crime statistics compiled by the LAPD.
Conventional wisdom says that when the economy is down, crime goes up. I’m extremely proud to say that, even in these tough times, violent violent crime is down 11.4% over the past year and 28.9% since 2005, while property crimes are down 5.3% over the past year and 23.2% over the last five years, while gang-related crimes are down 9.4% this year.
These numbers show what we can do not only through increasing LAPD manpower and using cutting edge crime-fighting technologies, but by working closely with the community.
Then, at the beginning of the City Council meeting, I was proud to honor the men and women who work the LAPD's Northeast Area beat in my district for reducing overall crime by 40% and homicides by 80% over the last two years. In addition to hundreds of federal and state law enforcement officers, LAPD launched major crackdowns against two of the community's most violent gangs, resulting in more than 150 criminals off the street and the shut-down of 13 gang clubhouses.
There is a lot more to do in terms of making our city safer, but by tracking data in addition to what our officers are reporting from the streets, we are able to know what is working and what is not -- so I am confident we will be able to keep up the momentum.
To see the latest crime information in your neighborhood, visit http://lapdonline.org/crime_maps_and_compstat.