The number of car thefts, homicides and rapes across Northeast Los Angeles is up significantly compared to last year so far.
In addition, figures for just about every crime are higher east of the Los Angeles River than west of the Los Angeles River.
That regional snapshot of crime is worrying because every year “we try to keep crimes 5 percent lower” than the previous year, said Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Bill Murphy, who heads the Northeast Community Police Station.
From January through Saturday, Dec. 8, as many as 934 vehicles were stolen across Northeast L.A.—36 more than the corresponding period last year, Murphy said in a recent interview to Patch.
Homicide totals were up by 33 percent and the number of rapes grew by 8.7 percent, Murphy said, (although the increase in rapes is caused by just two more incidents than in 2011).
“When our crime rate goes up or down, a big part of it is stolen cars,” Murphy said, adding: “If we can average 91 crimes a week we beat last year’s crimes by 5 percent.”
Last week alone, a total of 119 crimes were committed in Northeast L.A., Murphy said, adding that he expects the year's total to exceed 5,000 crimes—about 260 too many for the purposes of bettering last year's statistics.
The captain is scheduled to announce statistics comparing this year’s crimes with 2011 at the monthly Community Police Advisory Board meeting on Monday, Dec. 17. The meeting, which is open to the public, will be held at 6 p.m. in the Roll Call Room of the Northeast Community Police Station, located on 3353 San Fernando Rd.
