Violent Crimes in L.A. Fell 10% in 1997, FBI Reports

Violent crimes such as murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault fell by 10% in Los Angeles last year, reflecting a nationwide downward turn within cities of at least 100,000, according to preliminary FBI statistics released Sunday.

Overall, violent crime fell by 5% nationwide, and property crime including arson, car theft and burglary fell by 4%, the federal statistics show.

In raw numbers, Los Angeles police reported 135 fewer murders last year than the 709 in 1996. There were 5,000 fewer robberies and nearly 6,000 fewer auto thefts.

Rape continued to be a problem. There were only 50 fewer rapes reported than the 1,413 recorded in 1996, the FBI reported.

Los Angeles wasn’t the only Southland city showing a modest decrease in crime. Glendale, Inglewood, Long Beach, Burbank, Thousand Oaks, Huntington Beach and Norwalk were among the Southland cities that reported fewer crimes.

Glendale and Long Beach each reported overall crime decreases of 17%. Huntington Beach showed a 12% decrease, Inglewood recorded a 10% decline in crime, and Burbank reported a 9% drop.

Although FBI officials, as is customary, did not attempt to assess the reasons that crime rates keep dropping, other analysts attributed the trend to more emphasis on community policing, tougher sentencing laws and improving economic conditions. Some also cited the increasing popularity of anti-theft devices on automobiles and more home security systems.

But even as the analysts lauded the continued reversal of the upswing in crime that occurred in the mid-1980s with the emergence of crack cocaine, they cautioned against too much optimism.

“There are too many variables that go into the crime rate that we still don’t fully understand,” one federal official warned.

In the violent crime category, murder and robbery showed the greatest decline in 1997--each down 9% from the year before. Aggravated assault figures decreased 2% and forcible rape dropped 1%.

Among property crimes, arson decreased 8%, motor vehicle theft 5%, larceny 4% and burglaries 3%.

The FBI report said final crime figures, based on statistics supplied by 16,000 local, county and state police forces, will be available in the fall. The preliminary figures, sufficient to establish a national trend, were supplied by only about 9,600 agencies, officials said.

A breakdown by regions showed that violent crimes fell 5% in the Northeast and West, and 4% in the Midwest and South. All regions recorded declines in the number of murders reported: 13% in the Northeast, 11% in the West, 9% in the South and 6% in the Midwest.

Property crime totals fell by 6% in the Northeast, 4% in the South and 3% in the Midwest and West.

In the nation’s largest cities, those with populations of 1 million or more, violent crime dropped 6%, slightly better than the national average.

U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno attributed the lower crime trend in part to “the support this administration has given to local police.”

“Everyone working together has made a difference,” she told reporters. “Police have done such an incredible job. I think everybody deserves some of the credit.”