Hawthorne Crime Rate Rises 22.6%

In what one City Council member called a devastating report, Hawthorne Police Chief Stephen R. Port has told the City Council that major crimes are up 22.6% in the city during the first 10 months of 1989.

“The city of Hawthorne has seen a rapid increase in crime, largely due to narcotics activity. This pattern may be consistent with some of the areas of South Central L.A.,” Port said. “The increase in this activity does not appear to be consistent with other cities in (the) South Bay.”

Port, who took office in July, came to Monday’s council meeting with a half-dozen officers and illustrated his talk with slides. He cited increases in five of the seven categories of major crime, linking the trend to drug and gang activity as well as to the possibility that tougher enforcement in Inglewood and Gardena has encouraged lawbreakers “to relocate their criminal activities” to Hawthorne.

For the first 10 months of this year, he said, the city had more homicides, rapes, robberies, auto thefts and larcenies than in the same period in 1988, but fewer assaults and burglaries.

Port said Moneta Gardens, a neighborhood of mostly apartment buildings in southeast Hawthorne, has accounted for about 25% of the city’s crimes in 1989.

Councilman David York, a former police officer, called the report devastating and asked Port how many additional officers would be needed to make a substantial impact on crime.

About 40, Port said, explaining that most South Bay cities maintain a ratio of two officers per 1,000 residents. Hawthorne, with a population of 67,500, has 1.25 officers per thousand.

A failed ballot initiative in November, 1988, would have increased that ratio to 1.50, York noted.

Port said in an interview Tuesday that he will know how many new officers the Police Department needs after an operational analysis is completed sometime next year.

Upgrading resources is the key in battling crime, he said. “The cities that have more resources are keeping the crime rate down.”

The department’s budget permits it to hire 90 officers, but there are 10 vacancies, Port said in the interview. Even if the city gave the department more money, he said, it would probably take two to three years to hire the officers because of the time involved in recruiting, testing and training.

The comparison of the first 10 months of 1988 and 1989 showed homicides up from seven to 15, rapes up from 36 to 45, robberies up from 421 to 432, larcenies up from 2,098 to 2,148 and auto theft--a “booming industry,” Port said--up from 1,083 to 1,182.

During the same period, assaults decreased from 665 to 553 and burglaries from 1,028 to 999.

To illustrate the severity of the city’s drug problem, Port said felony narcotics arrests rose from 667 to 725. Port also reported that “ice”--a new, smokable crystal form of methamphetamine--is “selling like hotcakes,” while PCP use has declined because of its higher price.

Neither council members nor the audience disputed Port’s description of densely populated Moneta Gardens as the city’s most crime-ridden area.

Councilwoman Ginny M. Lambert suggested a moratorium on apartment buildings there.

Port said a combination of drugs and gangs in the neighborhood has produced organized drug trafficking there. “Gang members realize the amount of money made from selling narcotics cannot be matched by working at conventional jobs,” he said.

At the same time, the tightly packed apartment buildings that replaced single-family homes over the years make it difficult for police to observe criminal activity, Port said.

Several residents of the area said they weren’t surprised.

“Those of us who have lived in Moneta Gardens knew this was coming, and here we are,” said Eleanor Carlson, who moved out of the neighborhood last year after 22 years.

“We got the problems we knew were coming. The gangs. The drugs. The whole nine yards.”

Carlson, a self-described activist, said in an interview that she and her neighbors petitioned almost six years ago to block the development of new apartment buildings, which they thought would attract criminal activity and increase noise and traffic.

But the group was unsuccessful. Carlson said a man was machine-gunned to death next door to her home in early 1988, and that “encouraged us to get the hell out.”

Ella M. Willson, who lives in a single-family home in Moneta Gardens, said in an interview that the situation has gone beyond the point where a moratorium would help because the area already has so many apartments.

Willson, a 26-year resident of the area and a Neighborhood Watch block captain, said a moratorium would also hurt the few homeowners who might want to sell to developers.

In making his case for more police, Port said serious crime in Hawthorne is growing at a faster rate than in four nearby cities.

In the first 10 months of 1989, he said, the number of major crimes in Inglewood increased 8.5% over the same period in 1988--slightly over one-third the increase in Hawthorne. In Gardena, crime rose less than 1%, and in Culver City it declined 1%. In Torrance, crime increased 1.8% through the first eight months of the year.

Port said he chose those four cities because of similarities in geography and the types of crimes committed there.

MAJOR CRIMES IN HAWTHORNE

Through Oct. 31, 1988 Through Oct. 31, 1989 Homicide 7 15 Rape 36 45 Robbery 421 432 Assault 665 553 Burglary 1,028 999 Larceny 2,098 2,148 Auto Theft 1,083 1,182

Source: Hawthorne Police Department