FBI Reports Drop in Crime in Southland : Seven of county’s 11 biggest cities had decline in serious offenses in first six months of this year. Violent crime is also down.

Los Angeles residents got some good news this week as the FBI reported a drop in serious crime during the first half of 1995 for most of the county’s largest cities.

Seven of the county’s 11 biggest cities--those with more than 100,000 residents--posted declines in crime rates for the first six months of the year, the FBI figures show. Long Beach had the sharpest decrease, with the number of incidents reported to police falling 11% when compared to the first six months of 1994.

Most of the cities also registered a corresponding decline in violent crime--murder, rape, robbery and assault. Santa Clarita, a growing residential community where many police officers live, led the county with a 24% drop in violent crimes. Overall crimes in the bedroom community, however, are on the rise.

The city of Los Angeles had an overall crime drop of 3%, falling from 138,265 serious crimes from January to June, 1994, to 134,099 during the same period this year.

Murders in Los Angeles also tumbled from 374 in the first half of the year to 358 in the same period in 1995. Reported incidents of robberies fell more than 9%, rape dropped about 11%, and assaults fell 3%.

Torrance had a 7% drop in total crime, with a 28% decline in the number of assaults and a 25% drop in burglaries.

The figures, a Torrance police official said, are the result of a recent effort by the 248-member department to train patrol officers to target specific problems. Thirteen officers have recently been trained to combat gang violence, while another pair of officers are focusing on city’s shopping malls, said department spokesman Sgt. Ed LaLonde.

“The officers’ specialized training has directly impacted the number of violent crimes and burglaries,” LaLonde said.

Overall crime dropped 9% in El Monte, 5% in West Covina, 2% in Pomona and 1% in Inglewood.

The FBI tabulates the serious, or so-called part one crimes: murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft.

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For the most part, sprawling, diverse Los Angeles County mirrored a national trend of falling crime rates.

In the United States, murders dropped 12% in the first half of the year, rape fell 7% and robbery 10%. The total number of violent crimes was down 5%, the statistics showed.

But not all of the major cities in Los Angeles County saw a drop in their crime rate. Pasadena, Santa Clarita, Lancaster and Glendale saw overall crime rates rise 23%, 11%, 9%, 8%, respectively.

In Glendale, the number of reported crimes rose from 3,787 during the first half of 1994 to 4,074 in the same period in 1995. Incidents of assaults leaped 39% and thefts rose 9%.

Glendale police officials said the increase has puzzled the city’s law enforcement, but added that it was not unusual to see an increase in crime during the first half of the year, followed by a drop in the second half.

“Obviously, we’ll be waiting for the year-end stats to see if that holds true,” said department spokesman Chahe Keuroghelian.

Patrol officers have noted that juveniles have become increasingly involved with crime, and have contributed to the rise in assaults and thefts. The recent inclusion of domestic violence under the assault category has also inflated the statistic from last year, Keuroghelian said.

The growing desert community of Lancaster also saw crime go up about 9%, from 2,787 serious crimes in the first six months of 1994 to 3,026 in the same period of 1995. Santa Clarita saw a similar jump from 1,868 crimes to 2,078. Crime in Pasadena rose nearly 23% in the first six months of 1995.

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Although Pasadena has been hard-hit by auto burglaries and shoplifting this year, the overall increase of 23% reported for the first six months of this year had dropped to 7% at the end of November, according to the city’s figures, said Pasadena Acting Police Chief Robert Huff.

“I don’t put a lot of stock in statistics until the end of the year,” he said. “If you had asked me our crime rate in January 1995, I would have had to say it was up 47%,” Huff said, adding that that number was following a 6% decrease in crime in 1994.

Huff said: “It has been going down steadily every month, and at the end of December I’m hoping it won’t be up more than 5%” for the year.

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Crime in L.A. County

Overall violent crime--defined as murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault--were down in Los Angeles County during the first six months of 1995, compared with the same period a year before, according to FBI statistics released this week. Statistics on property crime, such as burglary and auto theft, were more mixed.

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1994 1995 VIOLENT* VIOLENT % CITY CRIMES CRIMES CHANGE El Monte 693 679 -2 Glendale 339 424 +25 Inglewood 913 933 +2 Lancaster 647 656 +1 Long Beach 3,164 2,729 -14 Los Angeles 35,636 33,640 -6 Pasadena 806 806 0 Pomona 980 875 -11 Santa Clarita 407 309 -24 Torrance 387 302 -22 West Covina 318 313 -2

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1994 1995 PROPERTY** PROPERTY % CITY CRIMES CRIMES CHANGE El Monte 2,414 2,141 -11 Glendale 3,470 3,666 +6 Inglewood 2,730 2,663 -2 Lancaster 2,170 2,391 +10 Long Beach 14,268 12,752 -11 Los Angeles 105,042 102,191 -3 Pasadena 3,507 4,480 +28 Pomona 3,638 3,536 -3 Santa Clarita 1,471 1,777 +21 Torrance 3,968 3,718 -6 West Covina 2,658 2,563 -4

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* Includes murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. ** Includes burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft and arson. Source: FBI