Northeast Division Neighborhood Crime update

Here’s some excerpts from the Northeast Community Police Station newsletter from Captain Bill Murphy

Hello everyone. This newsletter will focus on giving all of you an overview of last year’s crime. We had a really good year – we reduced crime for the eight straight year. But our mission to continue this trend is going to be extremely challenging. I do not have to tell you how bad the economy is today – with an unemployment rate of almost 13% in the City (higher if you consider those who have stopped looking for work). But the most troubling issue we may face this year is the potential release of approximately 30,000 prisoners from our correctional system. It is estimated (no one knows the true numbers right now) the County of Los Angeles would possibly get half of these with the City of Los Angeles getting the lion’s share of this number. The release of the prisoners is due to two factors: a federal judicial mandate to reduce overcrowding in the correctional system; and a bleak state government budget that may require dramatic cuts in the correctional budget – hence pris oner releases.

As of right now, we are being told that the prisoners (if released) will be non-violent offenders. This means that they probably went to jail for property-related offenses such as GTA, BTFV, 459, or narcotics charges. Unfortunately, property crime happens to be NOE Area’s biggest crime problem – auto-related crime alone accounted for 52% of our crime – and we may very well get dozens or even hundreds of these types of prisoners released onto our streets. Know that we are already planning for this and will use every prevention, intervention, suppression, and re-entry strategy available to keep you safe and your quality of life high. With that let’s talk about last year’s crime.

Crime Terminology

187: Homicide

211: Robbery

BTFV: Car break-in

GTA: Car theft

AGG: Shooting, stabbing, or assault not resulting in death

459: Burglary of a residence or business

261: Sexual Assault (rape)

NOE Year End Crime Statistics

Homicide: Down 42.3% (15 vs. 26)

Rape: Down 47.4%

Robbery: Down 1.5%

AGG: Down 11.1%

Shots Fired: Down 18.9%

Shooting Victims: Down 30.3%

Total Violent Crime: Down 11.1%

Burglary: Down 20.1%

GTA: Down 15.0%

BTFV: Down 7.5%

Larceny: Down 14.0%

Total Property Crime: Down 12.8%

Part I (Total Crime): Down 12.5%

* Ended year with EVERY category of crime down – very hard to do this
* We had 836 less serious Part I crimes than the year before
* NOE Area ranked THIRD in crime reduction Citywide (out of 21 police stations). We held first place for almost nine months. Missed second place by one tenth of one percent

(probably 6-10 crimes out of over 5800 reported)

And for Echo Park, the Neighborhood Crime Update is:

We had a serial BTFV suspect hitting multiple vehicles all across NOE. An observant resident of Echo Park called in a suspicious person and a patrol unit responded immediately. They detained the suspect who was wearing a black hoodie (sweatshirt with hood) and gloves on his hands as he approached his vehicle. The officers conducted an outstanding investigation. The suspect’s vehicle was literally filled with stolen property from 16 different BTFVs he committed that day! Our Auto detectives came in on their day off to debrief the suspect. He copt-out to committing dozens of car break-ins throughout NOE. Auto detectives were able to get the judge on the case to increase the bail to 50 thousand dollars (high for a property crime).

Unfortunately, the suspect’s mother bailed him out immediately and we are monitoring his activities. This arrest led to a dramatic decrease in BTFV’s. We do have a strong case and will press for a fast prosecution. Our undercover officers actually arrested him hours after he was released with property from additional victims. He was brought back before the judge who imposed a $400,000 bail. Mommy could not bail him out of this amount!

Good News: Part I crime Down 12.4%, Homicides Down 66%, (3 vs. 1), AGG Down 34.8%, 459 Down 32.7%, GTA Down 29.4%, and BTFV Down 3.8%.

Needs Improvement: Robbery Up 13.% (4 crimes), and Larceny Up 10.9% (7 crimes).

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