More Police on the Streets Cuts Overall Crime Rate

Putting more police officers on Los Angeles’ streets has been credited with helping cut the city’s overall crime rate by 5.4% during the first six months of this year.

In all, there were 153,765 major crimes reported to the Los Angeles Police Department between Jan. 1 and June 30, compared to 162,594 during the same period in 1986, according to police statistics.

Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said Friday that a recent survey shows that the LAPD’s 6,956-member force now includes 4,124 uniformed officers, or 59.3%, with primary duties in the field. By comparison, he noted that in 1974 under Chief Ed Davis there were 3,847 uniformed field officers in a force of 7,370, a 52.2% rate.

And it appears that even more officers will be available if the city’s proposed 1987-88 $2.46-billon budget is approved. The spending plan, tentatively passed by the City Council in May, calls for a 250-member increase in the ranks of sworn officers.

Gates also attributed the lower crime rate to police concentration on special crime problems and on heightened citizen awareness and help.

Seven categories of crime, including willful homicide, robbery, burglary, burglary from cars, theft from automobiles, theft from people and grand and petty thefts were down in the first six months, compared to last year, the department reported.

Rape, aggravated assault and stolen autos were up.

This is the breakdown:

Willful homicide: 419, one less than last year; rapes: 1,209, up 1% over 1,193 in 1986; robberies: 13,321, down 9% from 14,737; aggravated assault: 17,706, up 3.9% from 17,028; burglary: 28,191, down 16.7% from 33,859; burglary from cars: 23,953, down 5.4% from 29,100; theft from autos: 7,265, down 7% from 7,896; theft from people: 2,701, down 18% from 3,334; grand theft and petty thefts: 22,743, down 8.6% from 24,865, and stolen autos: 32,237, up 6.9% from 30,142.