Crime in L.A. Decreases 13% : Law enforcement: FBI also cites downward trends in San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys.

Crime was down in Los Angeles during the first half of 1994, according to FBI figures released Saturday, buttressing law enforcement’s hopes that the city’s annual homicide mark may drop below 1,000 for the first time in five years.

Citywide, 378 homicides were reported during the first six months of 1994, contrasted with 532 during the same period last year. For all seven crimes covered in the survey, the decrease was 13%, outpacing an average 6% drop for U.S. cities of more than 1 million residents.

Downward trends were also reported across the Antelope, Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys. In Lancaster, there were 12.3% fewer crimes; in Santa Clarita, 3.7% fewer crimes, and in Glendale, 8.8% fewer crimes--including a marked decline in murders, from four to one for the periods reviewed.

Although the FBI statistics did not separate Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley communities from the rest of the city, the Los Angeles Police Department reported earlier this year that violent crimes in the Valley had decreased by 12% and homicides by just more than 50%--from 77 in the first half of 1993 to 38 in the first six months of this year.

The decreases locally mirrored a three-year nationwide trend.

Crime reported to the nation’s law enforcement agencies in cities of more than 100,000 residents was down 3% for the first half of 1994, contrasted with the same period last year. That six-month decline followed yearlong decreases of 2% in 1993 and 3% in 1992.

The crime rate includes homicides, robberies, rapes, aggravated assault, burglaries, theft and auto theft.

The FBI divides serious crimes into two categories: crimes of violence such as murder and rape, and crimes against property such as burglary. Among the violent crimes measured for the first six months of this year, murder decreased 2%, forcible rape 6%, robbery 4% and aggravated assault 3%.

In the property crime category, burglary was down 6%. Larceny and motor vehicle theft each declined 2%.

Locally, authorities have said the decrease in crime may have resulted in part from a higher police presence linked to community policing efforts and to unusual events such as the Northridge earthquake in January and the World Cup last summer--both of which also put more uniformed officers on the street.

Other factors also may include more active neighborhood crime-prevention activities, an increased police focus on areas with high crime, a continuing truce among some African American street gangs in South-Central Los Angeles, another truce among Latino street gangs in the San Fernando Valley, and a Mexican Mafia edict against drive-by shootings that has cooled tensions.

*

Gerald M. Caplan, a former federal law enforcement official who is dean of the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, said he could not explain the nationwide decrease but cautioned that the public “should not take comfort in the overall level of violent crime.”

“Data collection is not so refined that one can safely predict a trend in this area,” Caplan said. “Besides, the figures don’t tell everything in view of frightening new crimes like carjackings and gang shootings that affect so many of our neighborhoods.”

Demographics might explain some of the modest decline, Caplan and others suggested, such as shrinking numbers of Americans in the 18-to-26 age group, which accounts for most violent crime.

Jan Chaiken, an authority on crime figures at the Justice Department, remarked that “people also are working more to protect themselves, which is why we have seen a decline in burglaries and car thefts.”

In a separate annual report released Saturday, the FBI listed 1993 crime rates for all the nation’s cities with populations over 10,000. The final figures showed that an estimated 14.1 million serious offenses were reported last year to law enforcement agencies across the nation, or 5,483 crimes for every 100,000 inhabitants.

Despite being lower for the second consecutive year, the 1993 violent crime rate of 746 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants was 13% higher than the national crime rate of five years ago and 38% above the rate 10 years ago.

Aggravated assaults accounted for 59% of the violent crimes reported last year, robberies were 34%, forcible rapes 5%, and murders 1%. Guns were used in 32% of all murders, robberies and aggravated assaults.

*

The FBI said the proportion of violent crimes committed with firearms has increased in recent years. In 1989, firearms were used in 27% of all violent offenses.

An estimated 2.8 million arrests were made in 1993 for all serious offenses, with some arrests representing multiple crimes. Of all those arrested last year for crimes other than traffic offenses, 45% were under the age of 25, and 81% of all those arrested were male.

Locally, Los Angeles and the Antelope Valley cities of Palmdale and Lancaster fell above the national crime rate. Smaller area cities such as Burbank, Santa Clarita and Calabasas were below it, according to a Times computer analysis of the FBI figures.

In the midyear report comparing this year to last, Pasadena recorded the biggest drop--nearly 20%--in its overall crime rate. Nonetheless, that city recorded the same number of homicides--nine--for the first six months of this year, contrasted with the same period last year, the study by Times director of computer analysis Richard O’Reilly shows.

Thousand Oaks recorded the lowest crime rate for the six-month period among big cities in the region--1,333 per 100,000 people for the first six months of this year.

Other communities recording significant reductions in their crime rates were Inglewood--despite an increase in homicides from 23 to 26--and Garden Grove. Pomona also recorded a significant reduction in its crime rate, notwithstanding 24 homicides for the first six months of 1994, up from 16 for the same period last year.

The Los Angeles rate was 3,922 per 100,000. Highest among big cities in the region was San Bernardino, with 6,521 per 100,000 for the first six months of this year.

Times staff writers Robert L. Jackson from Washington and Julie Tamaki from Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Crime in Valley Cities

Along with its mid-year report on crime in the nation’s larger cities, the FBI released its annual publication listing the 1993 crime rates in all cities of over 10,000. These are the totals for cities in the San Fernando Valley region. They include murder, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft.

Crimes per Area Population 100,000 people Los Angeles 3,525,317 8,873 Lancaster 107,224 5,802 Palmdale 85,293 5,713 San Fernando 23,628 5,269 Burbank 97,310 4,835 Glendale 179,488 4,577 Santa Clarita 119,890 3,253 Calabasas 74,661 749 Nationwide 248,709,873 5,483

Sources: Federal Bureau of Investigation