Central Area Weekly Update: June 6, 2009
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Each week Captain Blake Chow, Commanding Officer of LAPD's Central Division, sends out an email to the community. Captain Chow has agreed to let blogdowntown bring his emails to our readers.
As of June 6, 2009 Central reported the following crime numbers. All numbers are YTD unless otherwise noted.
- Violent Crime up 12 percent. (or 52 crimes more than last year)
- Homicides are up 100 percent (2 vs 1)
- Rapes are down 15 percent
- Robbery is up 6 percent ( 14 more than last year or .85 per week )
- Agg Assaults are up 21 percent (40 more than last year or 1.8 per week)
Total Violent Crime is up only 52 crimes from last year.
There are no patterns with respect to violent crime this week. Most of the 4 Agg assaults were east of San Pedro and South of 5th street when the week before last there were 7. Most of them involve minor injuries and the use of canes and bodily force. Many are centered around alcohol and disputes that start in the skid row area. Many start around drinking so our efforts have been focused on that issue.
Robberies were spread out. Two were none in fashion district. There were two bodily force robberies in the skid row area. We are beginning to work robbery apprehension details to affect this problem.
- Property Crime is down 8 percent
- Burglary is down 23 percent
- Grand Theft Auto is down 18 percent
- Burgl from Motor vehicle is down 7 percent
- Personal Theft is down 3 percent
There were two burglaries in the area of 7th and Hill and 7th and main in which a Male White / 35 years old / beard used a brick to smash the windows. There were three stolen vehicles in the area of the fashion district. However, one was unfounded the driver loaned somebody her car. The other two were recovered in Central (about a block away) and in Hollenbeck.
Total Part I Crimes are down 3 percent for the division. Downtown still has the lowest total numbers or crime in the City. We have been averaging about 70 crimes per week. The same weekly average from 2006 (post SCI), 2007 and 2008. Any small numerical increase lead to large percentage jumps because of the small numbers of total crime. We are showing over 100 less crimes this year than the nearest Division.
OTHER
Tomorrow is the Special Olympics Torch run.
The two legs are as follows:
925 Leg: West on Caesar Chavez from the LA River, South on Alameda, South on Los Angeles, E on 6th Street, South on Central to 7th.
1115 Leg: North on Main from Washington, West on Pico, North on Fig, West on Sunset. Handoff to Northeast at Sunset and Douglas
We have about 200 runners with us tomorrow.
blake
Captain III Blake Chow
Commanding Officer
LAPD Central Area
213-972-1289
apliiq
littleradio
RedwoodBar
TraderVics
thebonaventure
Rich Alossi on June 10, 2009, at 04:33PM – #1
Captain Chow,
Thanks again for your update.
Are the two-person foot patrols in the Historic Core area new? That was one of my top requests and it feels much better to see some actual cops on the street.
Also, I've noticed the police cruisers left in strategic areas. If nothing else, the area just feels safer because of it.
Julian D4 on June 10, 2009, at 11:24PM – #2
May I pass along the suggestion that if police officers in downtown are going to be eagle-eyed towards and fussbudgets about people who are jaywalking, and, of course, ticketing them accordingly, that cops also spend a bit more time being just as vigilant about people who are using public areas to urinate and defecate--and the act of indecent exposure in the process.
Downtown has more locations that reek (sometimes to the high heaven) and where one can see sights of people with their posteriors hanging out and genitals being exposed than people who are being hit by moving vehicles.
And I won't say anything about all the nooks and crannies throughout downtown where one can easily see illegal drugs being used and purchased.
Imani on June 16, 2009, at 10:08AM – #3
We has a people should come together to stop these homicides. I want to beable to make a diffrence in my community or world.