Murders Rise in South L.A.; Drugs Cited

The murder rate in the central section of South Los Angeles has soared more than 37% in the first four months of 1987, severly straining the 77th Division’s investigative resources.

Detectives blame nearly two-thirds of the killings on the drug trade.

“Either a (drug) deal goes bad or somebody tries to rip off a dope dealer,” Lt. Joseph Freia said. “We probably have more drug hot spots than other divisions.”

And, even when a dispute over drugs is not the motive in a slaying, the use of drugs may be.

“If a person is in such a need, they will do anything to get it,” Freia said, including burglarizing homes, mugging people and killing in the process.

Four two-member teams of detectives from the division and two more teams on loan from Metro are trying to wade through the workload, which increases at an average of one killing every two days. The “loaner” teams work on old unsolved cases.

“We are tremendously overworked,” Freia said. “The guys are stretched.”

Fifty-five killings were recorded in the division through the end of April. Several of those were turned over to gang-unit detectives, leaving the 77th Street Division handling 35 to 40 of the cases.

40 Homicides in 1986

That is a 37.5% increase over the same period in 1986, when 40 homicides, including gang-related killings, were recorded, Freia said.

“Our guys are in court a lot and then have to come back in to work late in the night to work on the cases,” Freia said.

And the kind of killings they investigate demand a lot of time in the field before they can be solved, he said.

The division, like others in South Los Angeles, is scrambling to handle an increasing crime load without an increase in the number of detectives.

The four divisions that cover the bulk of South Los Angeles recorded slightly more than 45% of the city’s 820 murders in 1986. Newton Division is running at the same pace as last year. Southeast and Southwest are running slightly ahead of the 1986 rate.

The Police Department’s formula for assigning detectives has remained constant for the last five years, Freia said. But the department is studying the allocation process.

“Many of the cases can be solved if we break loose for a little time and do some work on them,” he said.

“We know we have workable leads, but we’re getting fresh ones so fast and we’re going to court (on old cases) so that we just don’t have time to go out and work them.”

Homicide rates have dropped or stayed nearly the same in the Pacific, Central, Harbor, Hollywood, West Los Angeles, Wilshire, Foothill, North Hollywood, Van Nuys and West Valley divisions in comparison with the first four months of 1986.

Homicides dropped from 32 in the first four months of 1986 to 13 during the same period in 1987 in the Central Division. Detective John Dunkin credits the increased number of officers patrolling the downtown area with cutting down the number of street crimes in which victims are killed.

“When the police are out there, the people that rob and kill aren’t,” he said.

Detectives Work Old Cases

The respite has allowed Central Division detectives to go back and work on old cases, solving several of them, he said.

Homicide, however, is categorized as a non-repressible crime--one that cannot be directly affected by increased patrols and other techniques, department spokesman Lt. Dan Cooke said.

Increased patrols and other techniques can have an impact on street crime, but more than half the city’s killings in 1986 were drug-related, he said.

In addition, federal statistics show that 92% of all bank robberies were drug-related in that the robbers needed money to buy narcotics, Cooke said.

“If we were to impact the drug culture, we would knock crime in the head,” he said.