Anti-Truancy Law Cuts Crime, Report Finds

In the first 180 days since a citywide anti-truancy law took effect, school attendance has risen and daytime crime has dropped, according to a Los Angeles police evaluation scheduled to be made public Monday.

The ordinance requires police to issue loitering tickets to minors caught off-campus without a reasonable excuse during most school hours. Since it went into effect last October, 5,878 citations were written under the law, the report states.

In a letter to Councilwoman Laura Chick, who wrote the law, Police Chief Willie Williams hailed it as a success. He especially praised its positive effect on juvenile crime, which he noted had been “reduced significantly” during the evaluation period.

When the Police Department compared weekday crime rates for the October-through-March periods before and after the law went into effect, for example, it found an 18.1% decline in shoplifting. Stolen car reports dropped 11.8% and serious car break-ins went down by 10%.

Overall, the combined rate of crime for 10 offenses “most frequently committed by juveniles” declined 9.6%, according to the report.

To determine the measure’s effect on student attendance, the report’s authors compared middle school and high school attendance rates for the same four-month period of the 1994-95 and 1995-96 school years. The analysis showed that attendance increased by almost 2.4% at the middle schools studied and 2.7% at the high school level.

Having offered those statistics, the report then goes on to state that “it would not be appropriate” to suggest that the improved attendance was “based solely” on the anti-truancy law.

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As part of the evaluation, the LAPD also prepared a racial breakdown of the youngsters who were cited. The review revealed that Latinos, who make up 67% of the school district’s student population, accounted for 58% of the ticketed violators.

African American youths, 14% of the public school population, represented 27% of those cited. White students, 12% of the student population, received 9% of the citations.

Williams, in his letter to Chick, said those figures prove officers handed out the tickets “without special regard for the ethnicity of the offenders.”

The City Council ordered the six-month evaluation when it adopted the law in May. The report is scheduled to be presented Monday to the council’s Public Safety Committee, which Chick chairs.

“This report shows there is a direct and proven link between chronic truancy and juvenile crime as well as high drop-out rates,” Chick said in a prepared statement.

To make the ordinance more effective, Chick is considering asking the school system to place school counselors at the two traffic courts where cited students are required to appear with a parent or guardian.

The law carries penalties of a $250 fine and 20 hours of community service. For repeat offenders, the penalty is suspension of their driver’s license.