Violent Crime Increases In LA For Third Straight Year

LOS ANGELES, CA — Overall crime in the city of Los Angeles has risen less than one percent through the first half of the year, an improvement over the previous three years that saw more significant spikes in crime, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck said Thursday.

From 2014 through 2016, violent crime rose 37.5 percent and total crime rose 21 percent.

"We think we are making progress in the city of Los Angeles," Beck told the Board of Police Commissioners while giving them the statistics.

By shifting police resources to some of the neighborhoods hardest hit by gang activity and violent crime, Beck said he things the city could see a violent crime actually drop by the year's end.

“I am cautiously optimistic,” Beck told the Los Angeles Times. “But we’ll see.”

Through July 1, homicides have risen 2 percent compared with the same time period last year, rapes have gone down 9 percent, robberies have gone up 4 percent and assaults have been about even, Beck said. Property crime was up .7 percent.

Crime in the city fell every year from 2005 through 2013, going from 489 homicides to 251, and 31,767 violent crimes to 16,524.

The numbers started to rise in 2014, and in 2016 the city registered 294 homicides and 28,084 violent crimes.

City News Service; Photo: Shutterstock