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 August 15, 2009 Central reported the following crime numbers. All numbers are YTD unless otherwise noted.

• Violent Crime up 1 percent. (or 7 crimes more than last year)
• Homicides are even
• Rapes are down 24 percent
• Robbery is up 2 percent ( 6 more than last year)
• Agg Assaults are up 2 percent (7 more than last year) .

Last week our Robbery Table filed 9 counts of robbery on a Parolee who was living in Central. He was responsible for a couple of bank robberies as well as some eating establishments in Newton, in which he fired rounds at a clerk. The BID helped us in apprehending the suspect by identifying him. The still video photos from the bank were put out at Crime Control and this Email tree. Employees of the BID recognized him and helped determine his identity in two days. Our Career Criminal Detail then went out and apprehended him after a surveillance operation.

In Chinatown, four robbery suspects were apprehended from information obtained from the BID. Information about a suspicious vehicle was worked up by Central Detectives, intelligence gathered and four suspects from out side the Downtown Area were apprehended and face robbery charges. They are a tagging crew.

• Property Crime is down 8 percent
• Burglary is down 18 percent
• Grand Theft Auto is down 26 percent
• Burgl from Motor vehicle is down 5 percent Personal Theft is down 2 percent

Total Part I Crimes are down 6 percent for the division.

OTHER

Centrals Graffiti abatement unit has been very productive. In the last two months they have made 15 arrests and served one search warrant. Aimed at targeting prolific taggers and using information in databases, our goal is to identify, apprehend and working with the District Attorney, file multiple counts of various applicable charges on individuals that are prolific in defacing property in Downtown Los Angeles. More to follow.