Homicide Rate Up 27.6% for Year in L.A.

Los Angeles saw an alarming 27.6% upturn in homicides last year, with more than 75% of them occurring in south and central communities, authorities said Tuesday.

A total of 545 people were slain, according to the Los Angles Police Department’s year-end crime statistics. And violent crime in aggregate was up 10% citywide.

“These statistics should be a real cause for concern for the mayor, the City Council, the city attorney, everyone in the city,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, a professor of law at USC.

“But it is important that we resist the temptation to find a single cause; undoubtedly, this is a product of many factors,” he said. “They may include an increase in gang warfare, demographic shifts causing a rise in the number of males of a certain age group, low police morale and less effective policing.”

The year’s homicide victims were almost exclusively black or Latino males between 17 and 32, and most of the killers--many of them believed to be gang members, were between 14 and 24.

Several LAPD officials cited drug sales, high-powered weapons, and a decline in the number of youth programs in poverty-stricken pockets of the city as additional possible explanations, as well as attrition within the department. There are now 9,200 sworn officers, about 800 fewer than there were three years ago.

The department has begun to analyze the year-end totals to develop strategies this year and to increase enforcement of existing laws, such as curfews.

“The department and the chief plan to do everything possible to curb this climb,” said a spokesman, Officer Jason Lee.

The 77th Division, which had one of the highest murder rates in the city, is reassigning many of its 400 officers to street patrols.

Some of the division’s narcotics officers have been redeployed, Sgt. Kiyong Ma said. “The bike unit here was canceled 2-3 weeks ago,” he said, “and those officers were put in cars.”

The division is examining every patrol officer’s arrest records, citations and court appearances in search of patterns that might reflect a less aggressive approach by some officers.

If an officer is found lacking in certain crucial areas, “we will approach each one individually to find out what’s going on,” Ma said. “Then, the problem will be addressed.”

Citywide, rape increased 11.5%; aggravated assault 10% and robbery 8.8%,

Less serious crimes increased as well. Motor vehicle theft and burglary each increased 13%, Lee said.

But Sgt. John Pasquariello pointed out that crime--gang-related homicides in particular--remain significantly lower than they were in the early 1990s, when gang warfare fueled by turf killings and drugs escalated to unprecedented levels.

Between 1991 and 1993, there were more than 3,000 homicides, he said. After that, the homicide rate crept downward, until now.

Pasquariello suggested that the recent spikes in crimes across the board reflect a cyclical pattern of violence. The crime rate, he said, had decreased for so long that it was only a matter of time before it hit bottom and started to climb.

“What goes down, must go up; what goes up, must go up,” he said. “But that’s just one theory.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Rising Crime in L.A.

Los Angeles Police Department crime figures: