In face of weekend killing spree, L.A. crime down

By Aron Miller, Staff Writer
The Associated Press
Jul 2, 2008

Homicides, robberies, assaults all showed year's decline.

As it tried to explain a spate of killings over the weekend, the LAPD received some good news Monday - violent crime in the city fell almost 9percent last year, mirroring a national trend, according to figures released by the FBI.

During 2007, there were 27,801 violent crimes - homicides, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults - in L.A., compared with 30,526 the previous year, the preliminary FBI statistics show.

Homicides in the city dropped 19 percent - from 480 to 390, L.A.'s lowest number since 1970 - while robberies were down 6percent and aggravated assaults fell 11.7percent. "We hope it continues," said Jeff Godown, who head the Los Angeles Police Department's Compstat Unit, which tracks crime statistics. "We are working on homicide numbers of historic proportions, but you have to take every homicide incident by incident."

Meanwhile, Thousand Oaks checked in as the fourth-safest city in America of those with more than 100,000 people. There were just 146 violent crimes in the eastern Ventura County city last year, down 20 percent from the 182 crimes in 2006. There were two homicides in Thousand Oaks last year and none the previous year.

If the tony suburb nestled beneath the Santa Monica Mountains isn't rated the country's safest city by the FBI and other agencies, it's always among the top 10. City officials credited the Ventura County Sheriff's Department, which handles law enforcement in the city and just added a detective to protect residents from Internet-based crime. "It's been another good year," city spokesman Andrew Powers said. "I think, in general, our citizenry have shown that they have a desire to live in a safe community - demonstrated by our City Council support of public safety and including our really active resident groups. Generally, folks are really active in keeping T.O. safe."

Also in Ventura County, violent crime in Simi Valley fell 9percent, from 199 incidents to 181. In the San Fernando Valley, violent crime in Glendale ticked up 2.7 percent, while Burbank saw an 8.7 percent increase. Violent crime dropped 5.1 percent in Santa Clarita, but rose 2.9 percent in Lancaster and 5.5 percent in Palmdale.

Nationwide, both violent and property crimes declined in 2007 from the previous year, according to the FBI. The number of violent crimes declined by 1.4 percent from 2006, reversing two years of rising violent crime numbers. Violent crime had climbed 1.9 percent in 2006 and 2.3 percent in 2005, alarming federal and local officials. Property crimes were down 2.1 percent last year from the previous year, the largest drop in the past four years.

Staff Writers Dana Bartholomew and Rachel Uranga and The Associated Press contributed to this report.