Crime & Safety
Police: Fear of Crime Needs to be Reduced
The following 2013 crime report and recap is supplied by Studio City's LAPD Senior Lead Officer Michael Lewis.
Senior Lead Officer Michael Lewis of the Los Angeles Police Department's North Hollywood Division provides a wrap-up for Studio City crime in 2013:
What is more boring and monotonous than going through a bunch of statistics, especially when it comes to crime and crime numbers? However, if we like it or not, crime statistics are the mother’s milk of law enforcement. Here is a snapshot for crime in Studio City for 2013.
In 2013 we ended with a 17 percent increase in overall Part-1 crime, and driving this number up were car break-in’s, which were up 24 percent compared to a year ago. When I refer to Part-1 crime, what does this mean? Well, every year all law enforcement agencies throughout the country collect crime data and send their information to the FBI for their national crime statistics.
There are nine crimes that are tracked that make up Part-1 crimes. They are:
- Homicide
- Aggravated assault
- Rape
- Robbery
- Burglary from motor vehicles
- Burglary
- GTA
- Grand Theft Person
- Theft
It wasn’t until I became a senior lead officer when I understood how important this was and how the fear of crime affects all of us and the incidence of crime only affects a small number of us.
Frankly, we as an organization are not doing a great job in reducing the fear of crime but a phenomenal job in reducing the incidence of crime. We have been very successful and have worked very hard in reaching out to the communities and emphasizing neighborhood watch groups.
One of my main jobs as a senior lead officer is to unite neighborhoods, to inform them about the crime trends and teach them about hardening the target. We now have Facebook accounts; we send out e-mail blasts; the LA Times publishes up-to-the-minute crime statistics for every neighborhood in Los Angeles and we are passing out thousands of flyers and holding thousands of community meetings warning the community about crime and how not to become the next victim.
This effort we have put into community outreach has paid enormous dividends and has created great relationships but has it caused any damage? Well, I believe it absolutely has. Many people now belief that crime is out of control. They believe this because they are aware now more than ever of crimes in their community.
This article is my attempt to help reduce this fear of crime. I hope the founding fathers are proud of me. The current crime rate and crime levels are beyond incredible; it’s so low it’s almost too incredible to comprehend.
Forgive me but I have to go back to crime numbers as they tell an incredible story. When we look at the history of crime in Los Angeles, in 2013 we had 100,407 Part-1 crimes. We have to go all the way back to 1956 to find a year where we had less crime. Hello? We have to go back to 1956 when we had 88,440 Part-1 crimes! Is this mic on?
Just to let you know the following year, in 1957 we had 101,708 crimes. Keep in mind the population of the City of Los Angeles in 1956 was approximately 2.3 million compared to the current population of approximately 4 million. Many doubters say crime numbers can be manipulated and changed and as Mark Twain famously said, “There are lies, damn lies and then statistics.”
Well, I can tell you, in my area I had a 24 percent increase in burglary from motor vehicles and as a senior lead officer there was nothing I could do to change this. Believe me, I can tell you that LAPD’s crime numbers and crime statistics are genuine, accurate and true.
For the doubters, let’s look at homicides as it’s hard to manipulate this number. In 2013, we had 254 homicides. The last time we had less than this was in 1966 when we had 226. It is absolutely incredible.
Is this mic on? To give you some perspective, in 1992 we had 1,094 homicides.
Let’s look at robberies (the taking of personal property by the use of force or fear) for a minute. In 2013, we had 7,854. In 1991 we had 39,778 robberies, yes that’s almost 40,000 robberies and last year we had 7,854. What about in 1982? We had 30,063. How about in 1977? There were 15,304. Last year we had fewer than 8,000.
Is this mic on? We have to go all the way back to 1964 when we had fewer robberies, just 6,740 and the population was about half the size.
These crime numbers are amazing and I’m not sure why every Angeleno is not aware of this but it’s really our fault. Since 1992, crime has gone down in 19 of the last 22 years, with the exception of 2000, 2001 and 2002. So far we have seen a decrease every single year since 2003.
That’s every year crime is down since 2003 and 19 out of the last 22 years crime has dropped to now amazingly low levels.
If we look at the crime numbers as compared to the population (per capita, as this is the true and accurate measure), in 2013 Part-1 crime is at 260 crimes per every 10,000 residents. I know I might lose you but it gets better. When looking at the crime numbers in the 1940s, from 1940 through 1949 the average crime rate was 264 crimes per every 10,000 residents. So Part-1 crime in 2013 is lower than what the average crime rate was in the 1940’s.
Is anybody there? Are you kidding me? The bottom line is that these are extremely safe times. In the 80’s and 90’s there were many years where we had more than 250,000 Part-1 crimes and now we’re knocking on the door of going under 100,000.
We as an organization need to do a better job in reducing the fear of crime, as our founders were well aware: the notion and fear of crime affects everybody.
Memories are short. Crime was a big issue and the fear was real and affected a lot of folks for a long time in this city. We have worked very hard for many years and next time you hear our politicians and my police chief say, “We are the safest big city in America," you will really know what this means.
Let’s take a deep breath and, no matter what you’re told, no matter what you see on the news tonight, no matter how many times you read “Lock-It, Hide-It, Keep-It” on the digital sign trailer, the fact of the matter is the city of Los Angeles is the safest big city in America. We have come a long way and we have much to be proud of.
Please pass this information along. You’ll be helping a big part of our mission.
Michael Lewis
LAPD/North Hollywood Division
Senior Lead Officer Studio City
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