Crime up 13 percent in Los Angeles, reversing declines

The City of Los Angeles has seen a spike in crime in almost every major category for the first half of 2015, reversing the declining trend of the last dozen years, after California recently reduced penalties for low-level and non-violent offenses, officials said on Wednesday.

The change in law has resulted in fewer such offenders being jailed in the Los Angeles area. Bad news: rape went up by 7.9 percent, aggravated assault by 26.3 percent and robbery by 16.6 percent.

Commenting on fresh crime stats, “Garcetti said, “This is bad news””.

Still, Garcetti said Los Angeles is among the safest of the nation’s largest cities.

Since last month’s Police Commission decision on the police shooting of Ford on August 11, 2014, Beck has announced that he is retraining all Los Angeles police officers in techniques to de-escalate potentially violent confrontations, along with ways to dealing with the mentally ill and the homeless.

Baltimore recorded 155 murders so far this year, which represents an increase of 48 per cent over the same period of time last year. St. Louis, New York City, Cincinnati, and New Orleans also have seen homicides increase. The two said that the surge might stem from an increase in domestic violence and homelessness. Good news: murder is actually down 6.7 percent.

“I do take this personally”, Beck said.

Among those efforts are 200 more officers dedicated to specific crime suppression efforts, more specialized domestic abuse response teams, and body cameras that officers will start wearing next month.

During the summer, all police officers working in operation are required to undergo training that involved de-escalation of force, this is to help them with “preservation of life”.

“Relationships are everything in policing, and relationships are based on trust”, Beck said.