Results tagged “statistics”

Statistics for 2008 crime in California were released today (.pdf) by the Attorney General's office, finding that homicides and many other crime categories were down. In 2007, there were 2,258 homicides, compared to 2,143 in 2008--a 5.1 percent change. Forcible rape slightly decreased 1.6 percent to 8,906 incidents. The other two violent crime categories, robbery and aggravated assault, also went down to 69,391 and 104,793, respectively. However, burglary and larcenty theft over $400 increased slightly.

Causing excessive noise, speeding, splitting lanes dangerously, motorcyclists can sometimes be exasperating. Not only that, statewide statistics show that motorcycle fatalities are on the rise, increasing 51 percent in the past eight years. In L.A. County, deaths have increased 62 percent in the last four years, most drastically in the 21- to 24-year-old and 55 plus age groups.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's patrol large swaths of land from up in the Antelope Valley to the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Charged with all unincorporated areas such as parts of South LA and communities like Castaic and cities that contract their services like West Hollywood and Santa Clarita, yesterday the agency announced a major drop in crime despite the economic downturn. The news comes on the heels of four fatal deputy-involved-shootings that occurred within one week's time.

If you want good quotes, you go to LAPD Chief Bratton. He's always been one to be candid (remember his celebrity gossp/analysis?) Well yesterday, he joined Patt Morrision for her show on KPCC and when asked about LA Weekly's April 30th story refuting the LAPD's touted crime statistics, he dismissed it calling the report "voodoo journalism" said writer Patrick Range McDonald and cohorts must have "smoking a little weed when they wrote the article." That didn't sit well with Tina Dupuy at FishbowlLA:

You know the saying, it goes something like this: "statistics speak for themselves." So when LA Weekly's Patrick Range McDonald got sick of hearing the Mayor and LAPD Chief William Bratton claim crime levels were down to 1956 levels year after year, he decided to do his own statistics gathering finding that no, Los Angeles is really not living in the 50s still. Here's some of what we learned:

Officers were attacked 527 times up to December 23 of this year, according to the Los Angeles Police Protective League today. The total is the sum of 168 assaults with deadly weapons (14 with guns), 358 physical assaults and one death. SWAT member Randall Simmons was shot and killed last February in Winnetka when his team entered a home where a barricaded suspect was holding fort.

There's good news and bad news when it comes to driving-related incidents that happened over the holidays this past week. According to the Daily Breeze, "Six traffic deaths were reported over the holiday weekend in Los Angeles County and DUI arrests by California Highway Patrol officers were down from last year's total."

At yesterday's LA Police Commission meeting, Chief William Bratton reported the crime stats for the summer. Statistically speaking, it was a good summer. From the LA Times: "From the beginning of June through the end of August, there were 84 homicides in Los Angeles -- a level of relative calm not seen since the summer of 1967, when the city had 79 killings over the same period. By comparison, summer bloodshed in the city peaked in 1991, when there were 323 slayings during the same three months. More recently, the totals have hovered around 125 killings each summer over the last decade."

Despite a 40% spike in homicides earlier this year, a slow down in the crime has evened out the numbers. As of Monday night, there were 204 killings overall, compared to 208 this time last year, according to the LA Times who also reports that "overall, violent crime this year was down 7% as of July 12, according to the LAPD. The number of shots fired was down 28%, as was the number of victims hit by gunfire -- from 1041 to 874, a decline of 16% for the same time period."